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Show KANSAS REVISITED. 441 fields are fenced in, the stock fenced out; and the aristocracy of Ne-odesha are the cattle men. Near here a Mrs. Vickars and her daughters had produced a fair crop of cotton from a small patch ; had carded and spun it with their own hands, and were knitting it into va-rious articles. It is safe to say the Vickars family will get through the " hard times" without suffering. Westward from Neodesha I found the country rising more and more into ridges. The first creek I crossed by a deep ford, though an elegant bridge stood not far above, the way to it being fenced up. It appears that Neodesha had erected this bridge at considerable expense, only to find that the road in common use ran a few rods north of the section line. The mulish owner of the land fenced it in, and obsti-nately refused the right of way, or to sell at any reasonable price ; and so Neodesha had an elegant bridge which she could not use. Continuing my journey south and west, I saw that I was drawing near the great " divide" between the waters flowing into the Neosho and those flowing into the Arkansas. Nearly . half the country consists of sharp ridges, on which the land is generally fit only for pasturage. The narrow valleys between are very fertile, but as a rule every quarter section of land takes in some ridge ; hence the settler's farm runs into the ridges on at least two corners. By and by I come upon two old acquaintances prickly cactus and desert weed sure indica-tions that I am nearing a barren strip. Elk River has a wider valley ; the land is again fertile, and the heavy fields of corn show good cultivation. Westward I rise again to flinty hills, and am soon upon The Ridge, so- called, the highest point between the two rivers. Overlooking a section twenty miles square, I see that about one- third of it is taken up by these ridges of rock and gravel, while the inter-mediate vales are of great fertility. The hollows breaking out of the ridge each way are thick set with dense scrubby timber, in which wild cats, deer, and other game are still abundant. Down the western slope brings me to the fertile valley of Grouse Creek, and in due time to the village of Lazette, where I find the citizens in impromptu convention in the public square, watching the process of boring for cold water. Through all this section the wells are from forty to a hundred feet deep, bored and piped ; and the water is drawn in a metal bucket, half a yard long and some three inches wide, resembling a section of a tin spout. A valve in the bottom opens inward, and allows the vessel to fill; then closes when the draw-ing up begins. The fluid is so saturated with lime that it fairly rises up and takes a man by the throat. It is such, " hard water" that one |