Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1889-10-17
The Big Crops Of Kansas.

from Kansas these days, has his own par
ticular stock of stories about the wonder
ful crops in that State. Among the sun
flower citizens who landed in the city on
Saturday was Charley Barrett, the good
looking and talkative travelling passenger
agent of the Missouri Pacific. He had
spent four or five days in southern Kan
sas and his mouth was going at the rate
of 500 revolutions minute about crops,
when he was tagged by reporter on
Main street.
"Wheat !" he exclaimed, "you never
saw the like The farmers down in south
ern Kansas had to rent the public road
to get room enough to stack the wheat
Wasn't room enough in the fields to hold
the stacks. / saw one
"How is the fruit crop?"
Fruit You never saw the like APP
pies as big as cannon balls growing in
clusters as big as haystacks. | saw one
apple that"
Don't the trees break DOWN."
"Troes You never saw the like The
farmers planted sorghum in the orchards
and the stalks grew up like telegraph
poles and supported the limbs. | saw
one stalk of sorghum that was two feet"
Glow is the broom-corn crop2'
"Broom corn You never saw the like
There hasn't been a cloudy day in south
ern Kansas for a month Can't cloud up.
The broom corn grew so high that it kept
the clouds swept off the face of the sky
as clean as a new floor. They will have
to cut the corn down if it gets too dry.
Some of the corn stalks are so high
that"
"How is the corn cropg"
Corn You never saw the like Down
in the Noosho and Fall River and Ar
kansas bottoms the corn is as high as
house They use step-ladders to gather
roasting ears"
Aren't step-ladders pretty expensiveY
Expensive! Well, | should say SO
but that isn't the worst of it. The trou-
bic is that the children climb up into the
cornstalks to hunt eagles nests and some
times fall out and kill themselves. Four
teen funerals in one county last week from
| that cause. ] attended all Of them, that
is why | am so sad. And, mind you,
the corn is not more than half grown. A
man in Arkansas City has invented ma
chine which he calls the solar corn har-
vester and child protector IL is inflated
with gas like a balloon and floats over
the corn tops and the occupants reach
down and cut off ears of corn with a cav
airy saber. Every Kansas farmer has
cavalry saber and"
"Do they make much cider in Kan
sas ?"
"Cider? You never saw the like2
Oceans of it, Most Of the farmers in
Crowley county have filled their cisterns
with cider. A proposition was made few
days since to the water works company
Of Arkansas City to supply the town with
cider through the mains, but the company
vas compelled to decline because they
we're afraid the cider would rust the
pumps. They were sorry but they said
they would have to continue to furnish
water, although it cost more saw one
farmer who"
GLOW is the potato cropY
Potatoes You never saw the like !
A man in Sedwick county dug potato
that was so big he used the cavity it grew
in for a cellar saw one potato that"
"The people must be happy over their
big crops"
Happy You never saw the like'
know men in the Arkansas valley who
were too poor this time last year to flag
a bread wagon and now they have pie
three times a day. One fellow that"
But the reporter just at this point had
a pressing engagement elsewhere.
Capt. Addison NJ. Scott, resident engi-
neer of the Kanawha River improyement.