Show missionary LABORS thronia storm swept kansas and the indian territory ry elder J 11 peterson of smithfield writes correspondent shaw a letter describing tho the people and country alere abere he is 13 ia laboring bonig at S p m monday evening the democratic primary was held I 1 C was elected chaice chairman an and A N israelson secretary the following ladies and gentlemen were elected delegates to the county convent convention on 1 I 0 mrs I 1 C jane E IN molen Tolen eli bradley ezra Nie lerl maria jensen C C shaw mrs C C shaw chris jensen mary ann hansen james larsen wm win D rose annie M ralph wm win A mcbride theodore N N LiI liljenquist jenquist 0 H andersen alternates H B nielsen jens david B allen alien maria orell margaret M nielsen A S N andersen the financial statement and the election of officers for the society was postponed till saturday june at 8 p m in the central school the following letter from from a young missionary from smithfield now in indian territory will be of interest to many of our farmers as they will realize the advantages they have as against their eastern fellow grangers brangers gr angers brother petersen graduated last summer bummer and taught our winter school in blacksmith fork hollow or as our friend arntzen poetically calls it up the river this young teacher has donea done a good work and made many friends dear brother shaw when last I 1 spoke to you I 1 promised that when I 1 arrived ai rived in my field I 1 would write you a few lines Is giving g you an idea of the country and people it might be ruy my lot to see and become acquainted with I 1 have traveled a little both in stafford dand and pratt counties during durina the past four weeks As I 1 am expected to leave for indian territory tomorrow I 1 thought I 1 would tell you something about kansas and our little branch here in st john now while it is on my in mind ind it is a very windy country blowin blowing sometimes for weeks at a time or I 1 if tho the country had more rain and not fco much wind it would I 1 think bs be one of the greatest agricultural ditri ct it in the world the soil is a rich sandy bandy loam and quite uniform for miles allies around there are no running streams to speak of hence the farni must look to the clouds for the mois moisture titre their crops need some little irrigation for gardens and orchards is dono done by means of wind windmills wills A windmill is the most conspicuous object on every farm arm 35 or 10 feet seems tobe to be the average depth they must dig to get water each farmer has at least a er section of land and many have 2 or 1 4 many file claims under the timber culture act thus securing a large tract of land as well as a nice little forest I 1 have seen no trees but what have been planted the only onla fuel I 1 have seen peo have is corn cobs and coal of course in the future when their trees have grown up they will be able to furnish themselves with nood A great deal of corn is raided each farmer frequently having or acres it brings a bushel at present the farmers as a rule are poor they rhey need 0 o much machinery and have gone in debt tor for it so go that now many have a mortgage on their farms they have had bad three chop iop failures now in in succession when ahen they get a crop of course it is a large one but they can get very little for it the prospects are favorable here in stafford county this year in pratt they are not so good one farmer had a hundred acres of wheat blown up this this spring he then planted corn in in it As soon as it came up the cut worms destroyed it and he has ha now replanted it with corn planting corn is i called listing and the corn planter is called a lister and usually requires four horses ti draw it in my opinion the people farm on too large a scale if they had bad a greater variety of income it would b be in much uch better some are beginning to see this and plant several different kinds of grain such as caffer corn broom corn sorghum millet barley rye etc if the people would raise more cattle and sheep it would be better for them there is plenty of good pasture land everywhere there are no mountains here it is a smooth plain with the exception of a few low hills which have been piled up by drifting sand towns are few and far between and outside of them you seldom find more than one or two houses to the square mile the result ia 14 we have to do a great deal of walking to got get to do a little talking we have a very nice meeting house of our own here in st john we hold sunday school at 10 a in m and meeting 0 at 3 8 p in m every sunday there are four families of saints here numbering about 21 members mcm berB bro george W baker la is our pim idin elder and is one of the leading merchants tg of the town ile he owns a large farm also and is quite a help to the church the elders have had a home at his big place for many bears ears his whole fam family iy ay ati went t t to 0 utah last fall to go through the salt lake temple golf we have a nice little choir in our church and most cf its members do not belong to the church either it is under the he management of elder henry kirkman of salt lake city at our meetings we have an average attendance of 35 or 40 shortly before I 1 arrived here our elders assisted by the beet talent of the town gave an entertainment tain ment called pinafore the people all spoke well of it and the press spoke highly of it saying it was the best that ever appeared in in the town the company repeated it to to a full house at the county seat of pratt co where it was spoken of equally as well we have many warm friends here and a few bitter enemies wh who are circulating all kinds or of bad bad stories about the cormons mormons Mor Alor mons we have to endure a few hardships oc CO but we enjoy ourselves nevertheless nevert neless and appreciate the kindness shown us by a great m many any of the people and feel like asking gods bles blessing qing on them we have a splendid opportunity to study human nature and to me it will be a very valuable lesson I 1 am sure your brother in the gospel J H SOX ST JOHN kansas |