The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-05-10

grain-the largest crop ever gathered
from one section of land in America.
"Just think what quantity of grain
that is, Mr.. Secretary" continued DR..
Wolfe, with the genuine enthusiasm of
farmer, statistician and an economist
combined in one. lit would load nearly
thousand wagons and would fill three
freight trains, each composed of thirty
| five cars. 1t is a greater quantity of
grain than was imported by the United
States in the last fiscal year. What
would the farmers of Germany, of Hol-
land or England think of crop like that
| And this must the more amaze US when
we reflect that my farm is right in the
midst of what was once known as the
"Great American" desert-the region of
which the authoritative Humboldt,
whose word no one ever dared dispute,
wrote it is as sterile as Sahara"
81 have been out in that country" said
Secretary Rusk, land l saw no desert
there. Do you think it ever was des-
ert?"
Il do not. While it is true that vege-
table life has never manifested itself
luxuriantly in thi. region, and that it
was apparently barren, have my own
theory as to the causes. The land was
always rich, was always waiting to be
tickled with the pillow and smile in return
with bountiful crop, but it was for an
unknown period of time the runway
for millions of buffalo which travelled
north every spring and south every fall.
The hoofs of the buffalo destroyed the
grass roots, and gave to geography that
immense fiction, The Great American
Desert In 1870 the herds of buffalo be-
came sensibly reduced in number, and in
the fall of 1874 the bison disappeared
from the plains of Kansas, never more to
return. Coincident with his disappear
ance the grass began to grow on the
hitherto dusty plains, and now it carpets
the earth richly with green. Some say
the buffalo enriched the soil and made it
possible for the grass to grow, but do
not believe the fertility of the earth de-
ponds on top dressing. By planting the
seed deep in the ground the germ reaches
the electricity of the earth, and from
this relation is nourished into life and
stimulated into development. My crop
of corn, twice or three times as great as
that harvested by my neighbors, who
plant in the old way, near the surface,
attestS the correctness of this theory. |
did not make any money on my crop
no one can make money raising corn at
present prices-but | succeeded in &C
complishing what l started out to do,
and that was to give the American
farmer an object lesson in the value of
going below the surface of the ground
with seed which is to make his crops"
81 guess we shall have to confirm your
title as the King Corn Grower of Amer
ica," said Secretary Rusk.
Thanks for that. confess l am an
enthusiast on the subject of corn. All
my life, though engaged in the practice
of medicine, have kept close watch of
the agricultural interests of our country.
See how corn has entered into our ma
tional life. 1t is the one distinctively
American product of the farm. 1t is a
plant of American origin. In the uni
VerSallCy OF us uses, anu us mETlnSlC lLn-
portance to mankind, no other grain can
be compared with it. Readily adapting
itself to every variety of climate and soil,
it is grown from the warmest regions of
the torrid zone to the land of short sum-
mers in northern Canada. The first
settlers learned from the Indians how to
grow it, and a distinguished historian
once told me the first larceny committed
in America was when party of Puritans
stole the horde of corn from an Indian
village in Massachusetts,. The James
river settlers, taught the art of corn rails
ing by the Indians, had thirty acres I'M
der cultivation within three years after
their arrival. 1t is a curious circum-
stance that the James river Indians and