The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-10-07
AUTUMN THOUGHTS.
Noble Prentis in <, c. Star.

Noble Prentis in K C, star.
! This is the season of county fairs in
Kansas and it is perfectly safe TO say
that majority of these exhibitions have,
so far, been failures.
This IS not because the corn crop in
| Kansas was generally a failure. The
same result would have happened had
every acre planted TO corn in Kansas IN
1890 yielded 100 bushels to the acre.
| 1t is because agriculture in Kansas is
not pride, an enthusiasm, passion; it
! is because the farmer in Kansas does not
magnify his calling" He farms be-
| cause he must, and not because he en-
| JOYS his calling. He does not love and
cherish the earth: nor does he devote
| himself to one particular spot of ground
with determination TO have and hold
| it, and make the most of IT as long as he
shall live and leave it 10 his children
after him.
! The man who takes the words farm
| err and farming oftenest upon his lips
in Kansas is not the genuine farmer, but
! the politician and Office-seeker, the social
theorist, the all around speech maker
who knows something of everything ex-
! cept far ming.
A thousand farmers will gather in
| Kansas to hear any political issue dis
cussed where ten farmers will assemble
| to discuss any point in practical agrlcul-
ture. There is not in Kansas today
good. big farmers club which holds reg
ular and well attended meetings to re-
ceive and impart knowledge of practical
agriculture. Neither is there in Kansas
a strong and well patronized periodical
devoted TO agriculture and kindred pur-
suits, aside from p -litics. There Is more
about farming and of more value to
farmers, in a single issue of the Weekly
Atlanta Constitution than there is in all
the professed agricultural papers in
Kansas in six months.
The reason for the low estimate placed
on their own calling by Kansas farmers
is not found in a lack of fertility of Kan
sas soil; or of any quality or lack of any
quality in the Kansas SOIL The soil is
good and the season is long, which ac-
counts for the enormous yield of agri-
cultural products in good year" and
even in dry seasons. The soil, if cult
waited at all, yields something, and that
something in the aggregate Is a great
deal.
The reason the Kansas farmer does
not pursue his calling in JOY and make
every autumn a season of triumphal re-
joicing and his county fair a success, Is
because he has been accustomed to be-
rate his Maker and his state, and put
his trust in politics and lowbrowed and
low-spirited politicians, medicine-men
and miracle-workers.
The reason the Kansas farmer does not
make more of Kansas is because he does
70 hA Of
naming in Kansas. He is always and
forever for increasing the homestead
area" He longs for wildernesses to con-
quer and deserts to invade, particularly
if the law is against it.
The future will not be as the present,
there will be improvement, as the soil of
Kansas passes by degrees into the hands
of men who will realize its value and
who will cultivate it for all it is worth
and take pride in their success.
Then the county fair will be gather
ing of prosperous owners and tillers of
the soil, who will have something to
show for their time, trouble and money;
and will be proud and happy in the ex-
hilton.
In that day Kansas will not be extOlled
as the best agricultural and pastoral state
in the Union; the farming ground will
be cultivated and the land intended by
nature as a grazing ground will be pas
tured. and there will be no more fool at
tempt5 10 make out Kansas a great man
ufacturing state, and the boring of holes
in the ground to find something that does
not exist will have ceased.
Proud of their state, proud of their
farms, proud of themselves; savers, not
borrowers of money. interested in every
thing concerning their business, bent on
making two bushels grow where one
bushel has grown before; relying on
their steady, solid and compact brains
and stout arms. and not in the promised
miracles of political voodOuists, sorcerers
and rain-makers, the Kansas farmers Of
the twentieth century will be GLORIOUS
in their works and ways