The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-03-01
HOW MAKE MONEY
MEDICINE LODGE MAN TELLS HOW
WHEAT MADE POVERTY.
G. L. Lindley Says When the Farmer Came
With His Wheat Field He Brought
Poverty--There is More Money in Cat
tle--The Way to Solve the Irrigation
Problem in Western Kansas is to Ex-
change Farm Machinery for Cattle
Great Profits in Aifaifa--Cattie Living
On the Rough All Winter.

Il will tell you how to solve this ir-
rigation problem for western Kansas,
said G.. L. Lindley of Medicine Lodge
yesterday, as he leaned back in one OF
the big chairs in the county attorneys
Office and placed his feet securely on
the table.
Then the Medicine Lodge man told a
story, every word of which Judge Nc
Canless endorsed. because the judge
used to live out in that section of the
country
Mr.. Lindley then asserted with great
assurance that when the farmers in
vaded western Kansas with his farm
machinery and wheat field that hedrove
away prosperity and brought poverty
instead.
He named over anumber of men in
Barber and Comanche counties who
used TO own large ranches and herds OF
cattle and who were comparatively rich
men and who were today struggling
under mortgages and must eventually
give up their ranches. These men had
given up cattle raising and had invest
ed in farm machinery and gone to farm
ing and that was what ruined them.
He declared that southwestern Kan
sas would be the richest country in the
world when people got back TO the
proper level that nature intended and
that was stock raising. He said when
the wheat field drives away the herds
of cattle that the blue stem grass comes
in and kills out the buffalo grass and
then the country is no good.
Mr. Lindley explained how the two
last summers had been dry and the blue
stem grass had persisted and the uatur-
al grass. which is the buffalo, had re-
turned, land now" said he, I'VE have
wintered more cattle than anybody
else
1T is estimated that 25.0e0 cattle were
shipped into Barber county last fall
and some 1900 sheep also came. A
good deal of this stock has wintered on
the range without mouthfull OF feed
other than the buffalo grass and they
are in fine condition now. Now what
is the use in fooling with wheat in a
natural cattle range like that in Barber
county and have the state donating
money to buy seed wheat for the farm
ers when they can raise cattle and get
rich
THE people down there are getting
fair prices for cattle now. Major Hood
of Emporia came down the other day
and selected 600 head of fine feeders
and there is plenty Of cattle in that sec
ton.
when western Kansas gives up
wheat and corn and gets back to alfalfa
sorghum and kaffir corn and cattle it
will be all right. 1t is all right now il
only people would not try to raise some
thing that cannot be raised in the coun-
try. We do not need either summer
rains or irrigation to raise CATTLE
Mr.. Lindley however admitted that
great crops could be raised in Barber
county by irrigation. He said that +.
3. Curry, who lives about a mile from
Medicine Lodge, last year irrigated 100
acres of alfalfa and cut the alfalfa three
times and that the three cuttings had
yielded six tons to the acre which in
Medicine Lodge is worth SO per ton,
which made $50 uer acre.
Mr.. Lindley however claimed that it
requires capital to irrigate and that
there was more clear money to be made
in the stock business than in any kind
of farming that requires costly machin-
cry. He declared that just so long as
men went to western Kansas and Okla
noma to raise wheat and corn that sec
ton would be peopled with paUpers
who would be squealing for aid and if
they depended on cattle they would all
get rich.