THE INDUSTRIES OF KANSAS
=The Earliest Kansas Farmers.= Agriculture, the leading industry of
our State, was for many years almost the only occupation of our
people. The Indians were the first farmers in Kansas. The Comanches,
in the western part of the State, were roving hunters, but the eastern
Indians had permanent homes and tilled the soil. They were both
hunters and farmers. A government agent in describing their mode of
living says: “They raise annually small crops of corn, beans, and
pumpkins. These they cultivate entirely with the hoe, in the simplest
manner. Their crops are usually planted in April, and receive one
dressing before they leave their villages for the summer hunt in May.”
=Agriculture Taught to the Indians.= When Kansas was made an Indian
country the National Government agreed in the treaties to supply the
Indians with cattle, hogs, and farming implements, and to employ
persons to teach them agriculture. In accordance with this agreement
several government farms were established, and both the government
farmers and the missionaries taught agriculture to the Indians. By the
time Kansas was organized as a Territory, in 1854, there were a number
of farms in the different reservations and at the missions, and the
produce was such as to show that the soil of Kansas is remarkably
fertile.
=Agriculture During Territorial Days.= Most of the early settlers of
Kansas were farmers, but during Territorial days the political and
governmental troubles made much progress in farming impossible. The
terrible season of 1860 made a dreary closing for this period, and
confirmed in the minds of many eastern people the old idea that Kansas
was fit only for Indians, buffaloes, and prairie dogs.
[Illustration: HAND PLANTER.]
=Agriculture During the Civil War.= The year following the drouth
brought a good crop, but it also brought the beginning of the Civil
War which absorbed the energies of the settlers for four years more.
It was not until the close of the war, in 1865, that agriculture can
be said to have had a real beginning in Kansas. But, in spite of the
poverty and hardships of the war years, two things of especial
significance were done that showed the interest of the pioneers in
agriculture. During this period the Agricultural College at Manhattan
was established, and the State Agricultural Society was formed. The
object of the Society was “to promote the improvement of agriculture
and its kindred arts throughout the State of Kansas.” Under its
management a state fair was held at Leavenworth in 1863, and in that
year the Legislature appropriated $1000 for the benefit of the
Society. These events are worthy of note because they showed the
enterprise of the people when their resources were small.
[Illustration: THE “OLD MILL” AT LAWRENCE,
Erected in 1863. This was a gristmill, an octagon shaped,
four-story structure, having a genuine Holland windmill for
motive power. Additional buildings were erected for the
manufacture of wagons and farming implements. The mill was
abandoned many years ago, and in 1905 it burned.]
=Early Farming Implements.= The farming implements of the pioneers
were few and simple. Much of the machinery of to-day had not then been
invented. Because of the cost of transportation, and the lack of money
among the settlers, even the machinery of that day was scarce in
Kansas. The all-important implement was the plow. The pioneer’s first
crop was usually “sod corn.” The field was prepared with a breaking
plow, which threw up the sod in parallel strips from two to five
inches in thickness. Then the farmer, with an ax or a spade and a bag
of seed corn, walked back and forth across the field, prying apart or
gashing the sod at regular intervals and dropping into each opening
three or four grains of corn. Then he waited for the crop. Once the
land was broken, it was, in after years, prepared for the seed with
the stirring plow and the harrow, and planting was done with a hand
planter. Later the corn planter drawn by a team came into use. This
machine required a driver, and another person to work the lever that
dropped the corn. Then came the planter with the checkrower which,
when attached to the planter, made only a driver necessary. During the
last few years the lister has come into very general use.
[Illustration: CORN BINDER.]
The early settlers cultivated their corn with a single-shovel
cultivator drawn by one horse. With this cultivator it was necessary
to make a trip along each side of every row of corn. The double-shovel
cultivator soon came into use, but it, also, was drawn by one horse
and cultivated but one side of the row at a time. This labor was
greatly reduced by the invention of the cultivator drawn by a team and
having shovels for both sides of the corn row. Now cultivators may be
had that till two rows at a time. Formerly the farmer cut all of his
corn by hand with a knife. Now he uses the riding corn binder.
Great as has been the improvement in corn machinery, even greater
changes have come about in the machinery used for the wheat crop. The
earliest harvesting implement used in Kansas was the cradle, a scythe
with long fingers parallel with the blade to catch the grain as it was
cut. The cradler laid the grain in rows. A second man followed with a
rake and gathered the wheat into small piles, which he tied into
bundles, using some of the straw for bands. The next machine was the
reaper, which carried two men, one to drive the team and one to push
off the wheat whenever enough had been cut to make a bundle. The
reaper required four or five binders to follow it. It was soon
improved by being made self-dumping, and later, self-binding.
Inventions and improvements have followed in rapid succession, and
to-day the planting and harvesting of wheat can be done with
remarkable speed and efficiency.
[Illustration: HEADING WHEAT.]
The many wonderful inventions in farm machinery have made possible in
the farming of to-day a great saving of time and labor as compared
with the farming of forty years ago. There are few lines in which
greater progress has been made.
[Illustration: GASOLINE TRACTOR.]
=Agriculture Between 1860 and 1880.= For several years after the Civil
War the population of Kansas increased more rapidly than did the
crops, and the country was kept poor. The destruction of crops by the
grasshoppers in 1874 retarded immigration and left the people
discouraged. Several good crop years followed, however, and confidence
in the agricultural future of Kansas soon returned. By 1880 nearly
9,000,000 acres of land were in cultivation, a third of which was
planted to corn and a fourth to wheat. The next largest acreage was in
oats. A number of other crops were reported, including rye, barley,
buckwheat, sorghum, cotton, hemp, tobacco, broom corn, millet, clover,
and blue grass. At that time not a great deal was known of the soil or
climate of the State, and we find in this list of crops several that
have since been found unprofitable and are no longer raised in any
considerable quantities.
[Illustration: ALFALFA.]
=Agriculture from 1880 to 1887.= The year 1880 found the people of
Kansas full of hope and courage, and from that time until the drouth
of 1887 agriculture developed rapidly. It was a period of new ideas
and new methods. Millions of additional acres were brought into
cultivation. The principal crops, corn, wheat, and oats, were each
greatly increased. Fields of timothy, clover, orchard grass, and blue
grass were planted in the central counties, and even farther west.
Soil that a few years before had been considered unfit for farming was
now producing crops. The State was being rapidly settled, many miles
of railroad were in operation, and the excellent crops did much to
encourage the “boom” of 1885 to 1887.
=Agriculture from 1887 to 1893.= The period of good crops following
the dry season of 1887 lasted for five years, and it was a time of
great activity along many lines of agricultural advancement. By 1890
nearly 16,000,000 acres had been brought under cultivation. This area
was almost double the areas under cultivation ten years earlier.
=Western Kansas.= Before 1890 most of the farming was done in the
eastern and central parts of the State, the western part being
considered poorly adapted to agricultural purposes. During the next
few years, however, it was shown that wheat can be successfully raised
clear to the Colorado line. The sorghum crops also proved to be well
adapted to this section. The soil of western Kansas was found to be
wonderfully fertile, needing only moisture to make it produce
abundantly. A more thorough understanding of soil and climate has
brought better methods of tillage, and this, together with a careful
selection of crops, is making the yield much larger and more certain.
[Illustration: IRRIGATION FROM THE UNDERFLOW.
Upper, water pumped into the reservoir by windmills.
Lower, water pumped into the reservoir by an engine.]
=Irrigation in Western Kansas.= The possibilities of irrigation for
this section of the country have long been given much consideration.
For several years water from the Arkansas River was successfully used.
Colorado, however, in developing irrigation, used so much of the water
from the upper Arkansas that there was not a sufficient amount left
for our State. Investigation resulted in the discovery of an
underground water supply. This water, which is called the underflow,
moves eastward from the Rocky Mountains through strata of gravel and
sand. It offers to a large part of western Kansas a practically
inexhaustible supply of water for irrigation. Wells are bored into
this underflow and the water is pumped for irrigating purposes. Only a
small part of western Kansas is under irrigation as yet, but
experiments for the purpose of finding the best methods of utilizing
the underflow are being carried on by individuals, by experiment
stations, and by the State. Irrigation by pumping is bringing about a
remarkable agricultural advancement in western Kansas.
[Illustration: STACKING ALFALFA.]
=Alfalfa.= About 1890 several new crops came into prominence in
Kansas, the most important of which was alfalfa. Alfalfa is now grown
in every county of Kansas and has become one of our foremost crops.
Because of its long, penetrating roots it can be grown successfully
without irrigation even in most of the drier parts of Kansas. As its
many points of excellence become better known its acreage is
constantly increasing. Kansas produces more alfalfa than any other
state in the Union.
Sweet clover and Soudan grass have increased so much in acreage in
very recent years that they are rapidly becoming important crops in
this state.
[Illustration: Upper, threshing scene in a Kansas wheat field.
Lower, train of fifty cars of threshing machines on the way to
the Kansas wheat fields.]
=The Sorghum Crops.= Another of the new crops was Kafir corn, which
has also proved very valuable. This plant is a variety of sorghum.
Other varieties had been raised in Kansas for many years, especially
the sweet sorghum that could be used for making sugar and molasses.
Broom corn is another sorghum crop that has been grown in Kansas for a
long while and is raised in large quantities in the southwestern part
of the State. In more recent years two more sorghums, milo and
feterita, give promise of becoming valuable forage crops.
[Illustration: THE BEET SUGAR FACTORY AT GARDEN CITY.]
=Sugar Beets.= During the early ’80’s considerable sugar had been made
from sorghum cane, but in 1889 it was, for the first time, made from
beets. For a number of years experiments were made with sugar beets in
different parts of western Kansas. To encourage sugar-beet raising a
bounty was offered by the State, and a good many tons were raised and
shipped to sugar factories in Colorado and Nebraska. In 1906 a large
factory was completed at Garden City, and the raising of sugar beets
has become an important industry in that part of Kansas. Efforts are
now being made to introduce this crop into other parts of the State.
[Illustration: STOCKYARDS AT KANSAS CITY.]
=The Twenty-five Years Following 1893.= Progress was checked in 1893
by the financial panic that extended throughout the country. Values
dropped, and prices were low on everything the farmers had to sell. In
addition to the panic, Kansas suffered a crop failure in most parts of
the State. That was a discouraging period, but within a few years
Kansas had recovered. From that time until the present there has been
a steady rise in all values. Owing largely to the fact that there is
no longer any free land to be taken as homesteads, land prices have
steadily risen. The price of land products has also greatly increased.
In 1893 corn was worth but ten to fifteen cents a bushel and wheat
from thirty to forty cents. A comparison of these with present prices
serves to show how great has been the change.
[Illustration: A KANSAS WHEAT FIELD.]
=Kansas Wheat.= Kansas is now one of the leading agricultural states
of the Union. It produces a greater variety of crops than does almost
any other state, but the principal ones are now, as they have been
from the earliest days, corn and wheat. In recent years alfalfa has
come to be a close third. Wheat is our most noted crop. Kansas is
unsurpassed in the production of this grain. Wheat is grown in every
county in the State, but by far the greatest quantity comes from the
“wheat belt,” which extends across the middle of the State, from north
to south. Most of the Kansas wheat is of the winter varieties commonly
called “Turkey wheats,” first brought here from southern Russia by the
Mennonites in 1873.
[Illustration: KANSAS CORN.]
=The Corn Crop.= Corn was raised here by the Indians, and from the
time of the settlement of the Territory until very recent years it was
the leading crop and the greatest source of Kansas wealth. Since 1913,
however, wheat has been the most valuable crop of the State and corn
has had to take second place. Corn is raised in all parts of the
State, but much the largest portion is produced in the eastern half.
It is on this crop that the great live-stock industries of Kansas most
depend.
=The Live-stock Industry.= The live-stock industry is one of the
important interests of the State. The grain and forage crops, the
large areas of good pasture, the plentiful supply of water, and the
nearness to market, all combine to make Kansas an excellent live-stock
region. The raising and fattening of cattle and hogs constitute the
chief features of this industry, although there are a number of
others, prominent among which is dairying.
[Illustration: EARLY DAY STOCK FARM.]
The early farmers had their herds and flocks, but paid little
attention to quality or breeds. In time it was found that better
grades were more profitable, and the early range cattle and the scrub
stock of the pioneers have disappeared.
[Illustration: PRESENT DAY STOCK FARM.]
[Illustration: THE COWBOY WAS A FAMILIAR FIGURE IN KANSAS FORTY
YEARS AGO.]
When the Union Pacific Railroad was built the cattlemen of Texas began
driving their cattle into Kansas in order to ship them to market. For
many years Abilene was the shipping center. When the Santa Fe Railway
was built, Wichita, being farther south, became the chief shipping
point. As the country became more thickly settled the cattle trade was
pushed farther west. Finally it reached Dodge City which remained the
shipping center for many years. The building of railroads into the
Southwest made it unnecessary for the Texas cattlemen to drive their
stock to a Kansas shipping point, and about 1885 the practice was
abandoned. While the trade flourished, the cowboy, with his boots and
spurs and broad-brimmed hat, was a familiar figure on the plains of
western Kansas; but as the settlers turned the grazing land into farms
the cowboy moved farther west.
[Illustration: IN FULL BLOOM.]
=Horticulture.= Another Kansas industry is horticulture, the
cultivation of fruits. The first orchard in Kansas was planted at
Shawnee Mission in 1837. Very little tree planting was done, however,
until after the Civil War, and even then the Kansas plains were for
many years regarded as unfit for fruit growing. The early crops were
small but of a very fine quality, and Kansas apples won the gold medal
at the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia in 1876. This aroused
much enthusiasm, and during the next few years many thousands of fruit
trees were planted, but most of them proved worthless because the
varieties were not adapted to conditions in this State. Long years of
hard work and patient effort were required to secure the knowledge
necessary to make a successful fruit state of Kansas. To-day there are
many fruits grown here, but it is the Kansas apple that is famous.
Scarcely a farm in the eastern and central parts of the State is
without its orchard, and there are a number of commercial orchards
that are making horticulture an important industry in Kansas.
[Illustration: KANSAS APPLES.]
=Farmers’ Organizations.= The farmers of the State have at different
times, especially in the earlier years, formed a number of
organizations. An early organization was the Order of Patrons of
Husbandry, or the “Grange,” a national movement, introduced into
Kansas in 1872. Its general purpose was the improvement of farm life.
Many granges were organized during the ’70’s. The Farmers’ Cooperative
Association, begun in 1873, and the Farmers’ Mutual Benefit
Association in 1883, had for their general purposes the cooperation of
the farmers in buying and selling and in securing lower freight rates.
[Illustration: ONE OF THE CROPS IN CENTRAL AND WESTERN KANSAS.]
About 1888 the Farmers’ Alliance, already a national organization,
formed many local organizations in Kansas. The Alliance demanded a
number of measures for the betterment of the farmers, including lower
freight and passenger rates, and better mortgage, debtor, and tax
laws. The Farmers’ Alliance was a widespread movement and, for a time,
overshadowed all other farmers’ organizations. In 1890 the People’s
party, or the Populist party,[17] as it came to be called, took over
the political work of the Farmers’ Alliance, and that organization
gradually disappeared. The Farmers’ Educational and Cooperative Union
of Kansas is a more recent organization.
[Illustration: STATE GOVERNORS, 1915――――
ARTHUR CAPPER
HENRY J. ALLEN]
=The State Board of Agriculture.= In 1872 the Agricultural Society,
organized during the Civil War, was changed into the State Board of
Agriculture. For a number of years this Board gave especial attention
to gathering and distributing information concerning the resources of
the State for the purpose of stimulating immigration. Later it began
the work of furnishing to the farmers information concerning methods
of farming best adapted to Kansas conditions. These activities have
been continued, and the Board of Agriculture has been of great
practical value to the State.
[Illustration: UPPER, DEEP SHAFT COAL MINING.
LOWER, SURFACE COAL MINING.]
=Work of the Agricultural College.= The Agricultural College in its
early years laid but little stress on agricultural and industrial
work, but in 1873 its plan of work was changed and it soon began to
fulfill its real mission. A few years later the usefulness of the
College was greatly increased by the establishment of an experiment
station where investigations are carried on in such matters as the
testing of seeds, the introduction of new crops, the rotation of
crops, dairy and animal husbandry, butter and cheese making, orchard
and crop pests, stock foods, and diseases of live stock. Branch
experiment stations have, in later years, been established at Hays,
Garden City, Dodge City, Tribune, and Colby, where problems peculiar
to the western part of the State are studied. The Agricultural College
is doing a great work in gathering information and bringing it to the
people by means of bulletins, lectures, correspondence courses,
demonstration trains, demonstration agents, and farmers’ institutes.
Kansas was one of the first states to hold a Farmers’ Institute in
connection with its Agricultural College. This work was begun in 1869,
and the purpose was then, as it is to-day, to promote the knowledge of
scientific agriculture.
[Illustration: ONE OF THE EARLY FLOURING MILLS.]
=Manufactures Based on Agriculture.= The agricultural resources of
Kansas have led to the development of a number of manufacturing
industries. One of the oldest of these is milling. Among the first
needs of the settlers of the new country was a means of grinding their
corn and wheat into meal and flour for family use. This caused the
building of small gristmills in every community. Most of them were
built along streams and were run by water power, though a few of the
early ones used wind power. In later years steam has come to be
generally used. After the introduction of the hard wheats, the wheat
crop came to be much more certain, the acreage increased, and the
milling industry grew. Kansas flour is now sold in all the important
markets of the world, and Kansas is one of the leading states in the
milling industry.
Meat packing has held first place among the manufacturing industries
of Kansas for a number of years. Kansas City, the second greatest
packing center in the United States, is the chief market for Kansas
live stock, but there are several packing houses in different parts of
the State. Creameries, canning factories, and pickling works represent
other industries that have been developed to make use of our
agricultural products.
=The Mineral Industries.= Although Kansas is not one of the great
mining states, it has a number of valuable mineral resources, the
chief of which are coal, lead, zinc, oil, gas, salt, building stone,
and gypsum. These resources form the basis of an important part of the
industrial life of the State. The coal and gas have made possible a
number of manufacturing industries.
=Coal.= As early as the Territorial period it was known that there
were coal fields in Kansas, and small amounts of coal were mined in
Crawford and Cherokee counties. Immediately after the Civil War the
settlers in the southeastern part of the State gave much attention to
the digging of coal, some of which lay so near the surface that it
could be uncovered with a plow. Within the next few years coal was
found in Osage and Leavenworth counties and in the vicinity of Fort
Scott. These places produced large amounts, but Crawford and Cherokee
counties soon came to be the leading coal districts of the State. At
the present time about nine-tenths of the Kansas output is mined in
these two counties. The importance of the coal fields of Kansas lies
not only in the value of the coal, but in the stimulation of the
growth of manufactures. Many industries can be carried on only by
means of large amounts of fuel to supply power. The development of a
number of such industries in Kansas has been made possible chiefly by
the cheap and abundant supply of coal.
=Lead and Zinc.= Before Kansas was organized as a Territory lead
mining was an important industry in southwest Missouri, but not until
1876 was it discovered that the lead and zinc field extends into the
southeast corner of Kansas. Prospecting began at once and thousands of
people were soon on the ground. Although zinc was found in abundance
with the lead, but little attention was paid to it. Within a few
years, however, it was found that the abundance of coal made the
smelting of zinc profitable, and zinc soon assumed the leading place.
For a number of years much more zinc than lead has been produced. A
large amount of ore from the Missouri mines is shipped to the Kansas
smelters, and the smelting of lead and zinc, but particularly of zinc,
has come to be one of the most important of our mineral industries.
The development of the gas field furnished a cheaper and more abundant
fuel than coal, and much of the smelting was soon being done where gas
could be used. In later years gas is less abundant and there is a
tendency to return to the use of coal.
=Oil and Gas.= Although prospecting had been done in earlier years,
the real development of oil and gas in Kansas began about 1892, with
the discovery of the big Kansas-Oklahoma field. The oil and gas area
is included within an irregular strip, forty to fifty miles wide,
extending from Kansas City southwesterly into Oklahoma. It is
frequently spoken of as the “oil and gas belt.”
By 1900 nearly every town in the gas belt had more gas than it knew
what to do with, and various manufacturing enterprises, such as brick
plants, zinc smelters, glass factories, and Portland cement mills,
were soon attracted to these towns. A little later gas was being
supplied to cities outside of the gas belt. Pipe lines were laid to
Wellington, Wichita, Hutchinson, Topeka, Lawrence, Kansas City,
Leavenworth, Atchison, and many of the towns between. After ten years
of this greatly increased use of gas the supply became less abundant,
and now it is feared that the supply from this field may fail at no
distant date.
[Illustration: OIL WELL, OR “GUSHER.”]
In the earlier years the oil was all carried in tank cars, but a
system of pipe lines for carrying it was soon laid. Many refineries
were soon established. The crude oil is used chiefly for fuel and for
machine oil. In the refineries it is made into benzine, gasoline, and
kerosene. Vaseline and paraffin are among the by-products.
In 1914 oil and gas were discovered in Butler County. Within two years
this field was yielding such large quantities of oil that the total
production of the State was more than doubled. During the next year,
1917, more than three times as much oil was produced as in 1916, and
Kansas had become the greatest oil-producing state in the Union. The
output of the Butler County field is still increasing, and its
remarkable yield will probably continue for several years.
[Illustration: SALT PLANT AT HUTCHINSON.]
=Salt.= Salt is found in Kansas as a brine in the salt marshes, and as
beds of rock salt lying beneath the surface. The marshes were known to
the early hunters and settlers, and through the early years of
statehood a little salt was manufactured from this brine. In the late
’80’s the rock salt beds were discovered and the salt-making industry
was rapidly developed. The center of the salt industry is now, as it
has been from the beginning, at Hutchinson. Salt is found in a large
part of Kansas, but the most valuable area extends across the middle
of the State from north to south. This great bed of salt is in most
places from two hundred and fifty to four hundred feet thick. Some
salt is made by crushing the rock salt, but the greater portion is
made by the evaporation of brines. The brines are obtained by forcing
a stream of water through rock salt.
=Brick.= Brickmaking in Kansas dates from the early years. Brick clays
are found in many parts of the State, but the industry is carried on
chiefly in the eastern part of the State, especially in the gas belt,
because of the fuel supply.
=Gypsum.= Gypsum beds are found in the central part of Kansas,
especially around Blue Rapids and in Saline, Dickinson, and Barber
counties. Plaster of Paris, used chiefly for making plaster for
covering wall surfaces, is made from gypsum.
[Illustration: STONE QUARRY.]
=Portland Cement.= Portland cement is a comparatively new product in
the United States. The development of this industry in Kansas
commenced about 1900. Portland cement is made from certain mixtures of
rock substances, put through processes of grinding and heating. Its
chief use is in making concrete, which is widely used for construction
work. There are a number of Portland cement mills in the gas belt.
=Glass.= Gas is the most satisfactory fuel for glassmaking, and since
the gas field in Kansas was opened a number of glass factories have
been established in the State. Sand of a good quality for making glass
has also been found in southeastern Kansas.
=Agriculture the Basis of Material Progress.= At present there are
numbers of factories in Kansas, engaged in many different lines of
work. Our industries are constantly growing in number and importance,
and it takes all of them to make a well-rounded state, but it is the
agricultural industries that form the basis of our prosperity. On
these we must depend, and the history of agriculture in Kansas is,
largely, the history of our material progress.
SUMMARY
The principal agricultural industries of the State are
farming, stock raising and horticulture. The principal
mineral industries are concerned with coal, lead, zinc, oil,
gas, salt, building stone, and gypsum. The leading
manufacturing industries are concerned largely with
agricultural and mineral products, and are carried on most
extensively in the coal and gas regions.
Drouths, which occur in all agricultural regions, have been
most severe in Kansas in the following years: 1860, 1869,
1874, 1887, 1893, 1913. These years have marked into periods
what has otherwise been a steady progress in agriculture.
The Agricultural Society, organized during the Civil War,
was, in 1872, changed into the State Board of Agriculture.
The Agricultural College, established during the Civil War,
began active work along agricultural lines in 1873. There
have been a number of organizations of farmers, most of them
between 1870 and 1890.
Advancement in agriculture has been made in area under
cultivation, selection of crops, improvements in machinery,
better methods of tillage, and irrigation. The leading crops
are now corn, wheat, and alfalfa.
REFERENCES
Bulletins and Reports of the State Board of Agriculture.
Bulletins and Reports of the Agricultural College.
Andreas, History of Kansas, pp. 252-265.
Blackmar, Kansas, Selected Topics.
Old Newspaper Files.
Historical Collections, vol. IX, pp. 33, 94, 480; vol. XI,
pp. 81-211; vol. XII, p. 60.
Walters, History of the Agricultural College.
Tuttle, History of Kansas.
Prentis, History of Kansas, pp. 232-234, 292-295.
Publications of the University Geological Survey of Kansas.
QUESTIONS
1. What is the leading industry of Kansas?
2. Discuss the Indians as farmers.
3. What agricultural progress was made during the Territorial
period? During the Civil War?
4. When and why was the Agricultural Society formed? What has
taken its place? Tell something of the work of the new
organization.
5. Describe the early farm implements and methods of farming.
What have you learned of these things from old settlers?
6. What were the agricultural conditions in Kansas in 1880?
Between 1880 and 1887?
7. What connection does the date 1887 have with the agricultural
history of the State? What conditions followed this date?
8. What are the soil and climate conditions of western Kansas?
Give an account of irrigation in that section.
9. Name new crops that came into prominence about 1890, and tell
something of each.
10. What conditions prevailed in Kansas in the early ’90’s?
During the period that followed?
11. Discuss Kansas wheat; Kansas corn.
12. Discuss the live-stock industry in Kansas.
13. Give an account of the cattle trade of earlier days.
14. What progress has horticulture made in Kansas?
15. What farmers’ organizations have been formed? For what
purpose?
16. Discuss the relation of the Agricultural College to the
farmers.
17. Discuss the milling industry of our State. The meat-packing
industry.
18. Name the mineral resources of Kansas. Discuss each.
19. What manufacturing industries have grown from the mineral
resources?
20. What industries are carried on in your community? Are any
others being considered?