Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1894-02-01
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THE RESOURCES OF KANSAS.

This state, as the United States sta
tistics for each succeeding decade
plainly shows, is without superior In
the union as a producer Of the staples,
wheat and corn; that is for the acreage
cultivated. The product in bushels, as
well as in quality, is not surpassed, and
but rarely equalled. AS result. our
people now resident cOnfineStheir oper-
alton almost wholly to the production
of these prime necessities, including
hogs and cattle, which. of course are
the Off shoots Of corn.
In tie conduct of any kind of BUSH
ness it often happens that the best pay
ing field is in the direction of handlin g
or producing some articl of prime neces-
sity that is neglected by everybody else.
In such fields of enterprise are fortunes
usually acquired, and to mention one
of many reasons why this is SO will be
sufficient to prove the statement. Pat
ents and other forms of monopOlistic
advantages are clearly recognized as of
great value when the articles 80 pro
duced and protected are staple neces-
saries, and as the man entering into
the production of the products of the
soil that fairly come under this head
will for long time be without compe-
tition, he will enjoy all of the advant-
ages of monopoly.
In Kansas large quantities of pota
toes, cabbages, dried beans, canned
fruit, &C., &C., are shipped from Cali
fornia, where they are raised by labor
higher priced than here, on land gen.
orally inferior to our bottom lands, but
which costs 100 per cent more. The
disadvantages of California in these re-
spects alone are great enough to insure
q reasonable profit to the producer
here, but when we in the valley of the
Arkansas have the immense additional
advantage of tho freight or express
charges of i 800 to ZOO miles it woul d
be hard to understand why we do not
proceed at once to produce all the Sc
articles right here not only for local
consumption but to supply our neighbor
by means of our radiating railroads for
hundreds of miles. To make this bus
mess permanent, and to meet the great
demand with an ample supply, will no
doubt require irrigation, but as not
more than two irrigations per annum
are ever needed, and often but one,
and sometimes not that, it is a matter
easily compassed, and the underflOw of
water in the valley is not only ample,
but within ten or twelve feet of the
surface. A steam pump would if power
full enough to irrigate the land while in
operation thus dispensing with the cost
OF reservoirs, probably be the cheapest
In outlay and most economical in use,
as few days run per year would irri-
gate twice an area of land of twenty
acres, which twenty acres would never
fail of a crop, and under the most un-
favorable circumstances never fail to
produce what would net In dollars and
cents as much or more than would the
balance of the 160 acre farm, in the
staples of wheat and corn. There are
many other advantages to be derive ed
from the development of our resources,
but for the present we will only speak
Of this the most obvious and the one
that is certain to pay our people who
are enterprising enough to take it up
and push 1t to success Wichita Eagle.