Free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1888-1908, 1899-02-04
KANSAS ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Kansas farmers are preparing for
spring work.
An attempt is being made to revive
the roller skating fad in lola
Wichita is still having the grip; also
signs, knocks and passwords. Topeka
has pass keys.
Some of the national banks of Kan
sas have reduced their interest rate to
eight per cent.
1t is getting time to look over the
plows and get the harness repaired.
Spring work is not far off.
Iola's natural gas field broke into
recent number of the Scientific Amer
lean for three or four sticks.
1t is said that farmers of northwest
Kansas have not yet marketed more
than half of their 1898 yield of wheat.
The Ozark coal company, at Pitts
burg, will sink two more shafts imme-
diately and erect rs houses for the use
of employees.
A Kansas justice of the peace an
1ounces his willingness to perform the
marriage ceremony free for every man
who will appear with girl and Ii
cense.
The Gillett Cowboy band will ac-
company the Kansas buttermakers to
the national convention which meets
al Sioux Falls, South Dakota, within a
few days
Kansas must be getting cleaner than
in the earlier days. Steam laundries
are sprouting up all over the state.
There was a time when they were as
rare as ice factories.
Seekers after amusement have work.
ed the cake-walk so hard in Kansas
this season that this form of enter
tainment has probably been seriously
crippled for all time.
Seed catalogues are now on deck.
What a blessed old world this would
be were it possible to raise garden
truck like the pictures of that which
adorns the covers of the different seed
catalogues
Should there ever happen to be a
county seat contest between two rival
gas towns Kansas will treat the world
to the warmest exhibition of civic
pyrotechnics that ever hurled through
she atmosphere.
The old rattletrap which for years
has done service as a court house in
Mitchell county has at last been aban-
doned, and the county officers are
scattered all over Beloit in offices
which have been rented for them.
Two young ladies of Olathe, chums
and companions for years, died one
day recently within a few hours of
each other. A strange coincidence of
their life was that whenever one be-
came i'll the other also was stricken.
There are people who will not be-
lieve that whenever there comes a
pleasant spell of weather in winter
that the Kansas farmer racks out into
the field and resumes the task of sow
ing wheat which was interrupted by
the last storm.
The department of Horticulture has
for several years been cooperating
with the division of Forestry of the
department of agriculture to test the
hardness of trees produced from seeds
sent from various sections of the coun-
try, north and south, east and west.
The seeds were planted in plats hav-
ing the same soil and exposure and
have been subjected to the same con-
ditions On March :, 1898, notes We're
made on the effects of the winter upon
the trees and some striking facts were
revealed. AS rule no injury was to
be noted from the winter on trees
grown from seed sent from states
either north or west from this point.
On the other hand trees from seed sent
in from points southeast of this were
very generally injured from the cold.
The injury varied with both the species
of trees and the location. Black wal
nut showed the greatest injury of any
species and was most affected when
the seed had come from the southeast
ern coast region, Georgia and Ala
bama. This point, besides being Oh
scientific interest in showing the de,
cided effect of climate of the constitu
tionality of plants, has also practical
value for the tree planter. 1t shows
that trees from seed grown at south
eastern points must suffer more or less
when subjected to this climate, and
suggests that young trees transplant
ed from the same regions would be
even more seriously affected. Further
experiments along the same line art
in progress under direction of the de
partment.
BY the time that fourteen-mile-lak,
in Barton county gets fled with waite
Kansas will begin to grow sea serpen
stories, too. They will be appreciated
The horned jackrabbit story is becom
ing sadly frayed
A feature of the district court in La
bette county is a suit of 81, 500 dam
ages filed by man against his broth
er, The allegation is that the plant
if'S reputation was damaged by Sian
derons remarks made by the defend
II.