Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1894-04-19
STANDS UP FOR KANSAS.

You send me the following press dis |
patch from Topeka headed: ''Hoof |
Disease in Kansas" and ask me what |
there is in it,
THE state veterinary surgeon has |
been called to Burlingame, in Usage |
county, to Investigate strange disease
which has broken out among the cat |
tie of that section. The disease starts |
in the hoof of the animal. creating irri-
tation- The entire leg soon becomes
affected. The animal goes frantic.
gnawing at the parts continually, and
death results in few days"
1 have referred this dispatch to the
state veterinarian, DIR. Pritchard,
whose statement to me in writing is as
follows:
81 visited the above mentioned out
break and found the disease originated
in corral, consisting of five acres, in
which were confined 100 head of native
cattle that had been on half feed dur
ing the winter and but recently placed
on full feed 1 found that they had
not had sufficient roughness to counter
balance the baneful influence of an
over-nutritious diet, and this had pro-
duced a morbid and depraved appetite,
causing them to eat the refuse of an
old, deca ed straw stack in which hogs
had been allowed to harDor all winter.
The great irritation as noticed in the
skin was sympathetic affection. pro-
duced by the deranged digestive func-
tions, and there was nothing mysterl-
GUS contagious or infectious las err
roneously reported) about the disease.
The trouble appeared nowhere except
in this one corral or herd"
This dispatch is simply on par with
innumerable others of which Kansas
has been the victim, sent out by ire
sponsible correspondents, the demand
and pay for whose productions are
largely gagged in proportion as they
are made startling and sensational
For some reason unknown to anybody
but themselves this state has from its
settlement been especially the prey of
this class of fal1irs-dealers in hyper
bole, the chief share of whose stock in
trade has been imaginary billiards,
restitution, Reputation, and foot-and-
mouth disease in winter, and cyclones,
drought, hot winds, chinch bugs, and
grasshoppers in summer. Political
compilations change, crops are de-
stroyed by drought, towns are blown
away by wind, and live stock perishes
by thousands from cold storms and dis
ease in other states and no special COM
ment is excited and the states do not
suffer in public esteem; but let it fail
for a week to rain in Kansas, or let
there be good lively atmospheric dis
turbance in summer, a stiff, driving
snow from the north in winter, or
some man who through mismanage-
ment loses a few cattle or horses and
the eastern newspapers scarcely have
enough coarse type to set the scare
heads under which they print the won
derful tales of woe said to describe our
alleged forlorn, God-forgotten condi-
ton, which cause their readers, not I'M
reasonably. to regard Kansas as chiefly
a desert inhabited by crankS
Now as matter of fact Kansas is
not the sporting ground of either biz
yards or cyclones (the United States
weather observer for Kansas. who has
been in the state twenty-seven years,
says that in that time he has known of
but one storm that could be called
blizzard, and the few cyclones" We
| have had were only such torna1oes as
frequently occur in a more destructive
degree in many other states); while the
grasshopper, like the Indian and the
| open saloon, is but miniscence-
Like every other state in the union
y
| such times the chinch bugs make them
selves the same mo worsel aggressive,
| bad-smelling busy bodies here that they
do elsewhere under like circumstances;
as to the states healthfulness the sun
shines upon no region where mankind
or brutekind enjoy greater immunity
| from disease or breathe more whole
| some, invigorating. atmosphere than
| that waited across the 81, 900, 900 fertile
acres known as Kansas
Permit me to say incidentally to your
| eaders that they need not waste time
feeling sorry for Kansas We are hav-
| ing the hard times, as all the world is,
but the condition of our people is one
| of opulence and comfort compared with
| that of those in some other states east
of us where such ills as Kansas is cred
| tied with are supposed to never come.
Last year, disastrous everywhere, was
| one of our poorest and we only raised
and marketed 1922, 900. 600 worth of
| products; but we have every promise
/ of substantial prosperity ahead Re-
| ports are coming from dozens OF cOun-
| ties that the millions of acres of winter
| wheat never looked better at this time
| of the year; that a greater acreage of
| corn than ever before will be planted
| and large areas of the ground are al
|
| good condition and feed abundant and
the faith of our people are unbounded-
| Further, there has never been a more
! favorable opportunity to become iden-
| titled with the garden spot of the CEN
| trail west than is afforded in Kansas
now.
Again, a state that in the past five
years has produced 222, 00O, 600 bushels
| of wheat, 721, 600. 900 bushels of corn,
1SS, 600. 600 bushels of oats. slaughtered
| or sold for slaughter animals worth
S1s9, 00O 0OO and sold poultry and eggs
| worth SIS. 26O. 900. paid off in two years
s25. 600. 600 of mortgage Indebtedness,
and the meanwhile gone on building
| schoolhouses. churches and better
homes does not need to be commiser-
ated-she is to be envied--F. d. Co.
burn. Secretary State Board of Agri-
| culture, in Breeders Gazette.
4 Shower of Feathers.
L A. rxr