New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-07-30
WHEAT FIELDS OF KANSAS.
TIE CROPS IN THE EASTERN AND CENTRAL
BELTS


has this year proved himself second and
mighter Atlas. If the State ever changes her
coat arms the new crest should show the Kansas
farmer supporting the world upon his shoulders
His potent ache.y has transformed the rich black
soil into millions of bushels of golden grain which IL
now going forth to feed the world. The meaning
of these great wheat fields is the difference between
plenty and prosperity. and want and disaster. had
wheat and corn failed this season in Kansas, the
resulting evils could hardly have been over
estimated.
It seemed in crossing Illinois and Iowa week ago
that the first reports of the Western crops must
have been exaggerated. In Illinois the corn was
hardly six inches high. Wheat and the other grams
looked dwarfcd and backward Stagnant lakes oil
water, fields buried in mud, and wash-outs on the
railway told the story of the recent floods. Enter
ING Missouri slgDs of a greater fertility began 10
show themselves. and when Kansas City was lett
behind and the train rolled for mile after mile
through fields of corn six feet high and tasseIled
ont and through wheat fields stretching as far as
tbe eve could reach with tho wheat cut and
stacked awaiting the thresher it was sufficiently
demonstrated that tho great crops of Kansas have
not been oyerestimated The State Board reported
n wheat acreage Of 100000. or % per cent less
than last year, and probable yield, taking an
average of twenty bushels to the acre OF 3O.OO0OO0
bushels or % per cent more than last year Now
that the wheat is beginning to come IN 10 the
elevators il is evident that the yield will be greater
than had been supposed. The secretary OF the state
Board of Agriculture said to me day or two ago
that since the preparation of his first report he had
received letters from correspondents all over tie
State stating that his estimate OF twenty
bushels to tie acre was considerably too low. /
have thus far travelled some $50 miles west
through Kansas down the line Of the Atchison'
Topeka and Santa Re Railroad, and not one OF the
many farmers | have met has considered that ms
WELD would he less than twenty-five bushels to
the acre. and in some cases 1t has been placed as
high as thirtv-fve. The country for most of the
way has been like a splendid garden Take the fat
meadow lands OF the Connecticut Valley, multiply
their width by fifty cover them with lOO-acre
fields of wheat and 2OO-acre stretches of corn,
bonnd all these fields by green luxuriant hedges OF
Osape orange. which guard the crops against herds
of fat native and Durham cattle plstuung upon the
grass lands and you have an idea OF the country l
have seen in Eastern. Central and South-Oenifal
Kansas. The real cause for astonishment lies IN
the fact that this wonderfully prosperous develop
ment has been attained to-day in so new country
and one that has been settled almost without excep-
ton by people destitute Of means. Here is Newton,
the town from which | write, only ten years old,
but with Il substantial population OF 1000. Like
most of these small towns it consists mainly OF a
long level broad street along which are ranged
low brick business blocks. Its appearance, as Is
usually the case here. gives the Eastern observer
the uneasy idea that the town is ambtiously
sprawlIng itself out to make rs brave a showing as
possibe. II, pretensions are backed by two banks,
five hotels three newspapers, a steam Hour mill
and bropm factory which, in an infant Of ten years,
;,I,- lah
town Is in the eastern part of the Arkansas Valley
called the Golden Belt OF Kansas aud Is the
county seat of Harvey County, the southwest corner
of which lust tourhes the Arkansas River. Within
a radlns of thirty miles from Newton lie some OF
the finest wheat fields in the state ana trips into
the surrounding country afford excellent opD0rtu-
mites for gaining an insight into farming Ire ana
the prospects of the crops. In this general section
also are the Mennonites, the most industrious,
economical and successful farmers that have been
numbered among our immigrants. Crop statistics
Won have had and will have in abundance, and
without dealing particularly with hgures 1t VIII be
my aim 10 convey idea OF 4 great wheat country,
and of the types of people who i'll few years have
raised themselves from almost utter poverty 10
comfort and a competence.
SIGHTS AND INCIDENIs or 4 PRAIRIE DRIVE.
fev DAYS since | left Newton for a twenty mile
outside the town several stretches of prairie
enurely unimproyel. Asking the reason, | was
toId that these lands held by Spectators and
the rapid increase i'm values in this country Is strik
indy illustrated by the fact that this land was
bought some four five years ago for from 70 to
so an acre and the owners NON refuse to sell at
$50 holding out for a greater Use. Beyond these
few acres the wheat and corn fields stretched along
the side of the road throughout almost the whole OF
nv drive of twenty miles out and back by differ
ent route.
prairie ride in Kansas is something to be re-
membered Famed by the cool, delightful breeze
that swept steadily across the level plains. 1t was
hard to appreciate the stories Of hHnStroAe ana
suffering that have been coming from Newly ORR.
Here field OF wheat yet waited cutting. ana the
russell gold of the dropping bearded heads set OIL
the silver frosng of the oats hard by ~ the breeze
sent rppes of changing radiance through the hold'
while the rich dark green of the towering in
lush luAurance framed in picture repeated again
and again. Then came fields where the header
had left stretches of golden stubble with mountains
of grain piled in the centre. or where the grain had
been hound into sheayes and stood stacked about
the folds Away on the horizon here and there
rosa the smoke OF the steam thTeshers. for most of
the winter wheat has been harvested and the work
of threshing is well under way. 1t was almost
relief to fna occasionally in the long stretch OF
grain fields bit of green prairie land used Tor pas
turage. with the rich "blue stem" grass and the
short soft buffalo grass which reappears wherever
the land has been pastured down. Yellow ana
white "button weedsp ami peculiar blue flower
oro almost the only bits Of the praires ut
present although earlier in the season they are all
aglow with lowering weeds. The treeeSs
prairie" is something which the Eastern man looks
for here in vain Nearly all the fields are helted by
hedges of the Usage orange, which in three years
attarns n growth sufficient to turn cattle, ana
which if left untrimmed. gro vs. to height OF SIX
teen or eighteen feet. Nearly every farmhouse