Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1885-11-08
THE WONDERFUL GROWTH OF
KANSAS.

county.
The prosperity of this state is based
upon its farm products. Our mineral
resources are, in comparison with
ag icultur;,l productions, small and
unimportant. We have lead in the
southeast: we have coal in many sec
tons. and the supply is equal TO the
wants of our people: e.have salt and
gyJsum in abundance. But the
wealth Of Kansas lies in our harvest
fields. Our prosperity is based pri-
marily upon the plow. Kansas en-
braces over fifiy-two million acres OF
land Fully fiiiy million acres of this
vsst area of country is capable of pro-
ducing luxurient crops. Only little
over thirteen million acres-less Than
one fourth OF the entire AREAS now
under cultivation; and the land ciassed
as "under cultivation" includes nearly
five million acres of prairie grass
| Practically. therefore. only about
seven million acres of Kansas soil has
been touched by the pillow. Yet the
products this year will aggregate fully
| ten million bushels of wheat two hum
| bred million bushels of corn, six mil
| lion bushels of rye, three million BUSH
els of oats. and seven million bushels
of Irish potatoes making two hun
bred and It's enty-six million bushels oil
these five crops.
Ii il not possible. as yet, TO estimate
the value of the field "rops Of Kansas,
including grasses, for the year 1885:
but their value of the previous year
aggregated l05,945,773.
Kansas had last year 5,444.391 head
OF stock, valued at Sll5 ,0i5.050.
We have planted nearly twenty-five
million fruit trees, and have one hun
dred and thirty thousand acres of ar
titicial forest trees.
The assessed valuation of the prop
erty of The state, for the year 1885, ag-
gregates $l4s. $40, 262, an increase over
last year of Sl1 ,S06.5 sos. The real es-
tate aggregates in value S123,OOO,OOO.
an increase of nearly six millions over
the valuation of last year. The rail-
road property of the state Is valued at
S30, S67 $50, an increase OF Sl,911 ,9l2,
and we have ALSO miles of completed
railway within our borders.
This is all the growth of thirty years.
| could, perhaps, more accurately say
of twenty wears: for Kansas hardly
began TO grow until the spring of 1868,
when the home returning soldiers and
the railroads came together. The de-
velopment of Kansas during these two
decades challenges comparison with
that of any country in the world. An
irresistible impulse seems TO have
brought hitler the best blood and
brain of all the nations of the world.
Our schools. colleges, universities ana
churches rival those of the oldest Gun
tries. and railways, traversing nearly
every organized county, bring a
market to every farmers granary.
1t is asked now and then, can this
wonderful growth continue: why
should il not continue: Less than one
fourth of the entire area of Kansas. as
/ have stated. is under cultivation:
there are millions of acres yet un-
occupied: the Immigration to Kansas
this wear is unprecedented, and the
human energy which is assembling
here with such unprecedented rapidity
must produce results even more re-
markab!e than those wrought during
the past two decades. The develop
ment OF the present is only the dawn
of that which is to he. The Kansas of
to-day only foreshatlows the Kansas
of the future.
/ make thi statemnt with full re-
alZation of its meaning. | know that
there are MANY. even of our own peo-
pie. who believe that a very large see
ton of the western third of our state
can never be successfully TILED. But
actual experiment is SCATTERING this
theory. The line making the western
boundary of agriculture is myth. 1t
goes westward with the settlement.
The rain belt travels with the pillow.
II has been located on half dozen
degrees of longitude. II was on the
Blue river when 1 came TO the state.
nearly thirty wears ago. The valleys
of the Republican, the Arkansas and
the solomon were then regarded a
rainless as deserts. But the line moved
ives: ward, wear by year. until it
reached the hundredth meridian. BE-
vond this, by almost universal assent.
il was declared that successful farming
was not possible. Yet in the north
en- tier three counties lying west of
that line, AMI running through to Col
oradO. are teemlng with al
busy and aggressive populations;
and these people point to crops
OF wheat and corn equalling any ever
grown elsewhere, as the most convinc-
ing answer that can be made to the as
sertiou that western Kansas is sterile
and rainless. On the far southwest
line the development of the harvesis
produced are equally astonishing and
convincing. The same wide and beau
tiful valleys. the same rich upland. the
same deep and productive soil, the
same luXuriaut vegetation, are the
characteristics of these far west coun-
ties,as they are of the counties wat
cred by the Delaware, the Kansas and
he Neosha. and the same blue sky
and pure air bends above and cnvel-
opes the whole of this great state OF
ours from the Missouri 10 the Colora-
do line.
With this fair land as his home with |
this productive soil as his workshop
and with the rare and healtful atmos-
phere of Kansas to stimulate his en-
er"y, the farmer of this state ought 10 |
be contented and prosperous. Ger
tainly in no other state have the OPP
portunities for securing pleasant
homes and productive farms been so
favorable and so numerous as here in
Kansas Certainly in no other land |
has SO much material wealth been dug |
out OF the earth in So short a time rs
here in Kansas. Certainly in no other |
country under the shining stars have
so many poor and struggling men won
modest fortunes by honest industry a
here in Kansas. And certainly the |
future of Kansas promises a growth !
and development as rapid, and as sub
staniial. as that of the past.