The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1899-07-14
Farming in western Kansas

Farming IN " e6rern Kansas
The following letter, written by Hon.
F. D. Coburn to the editor Of the
Graphic, in Oakley, Logan county,
Kan, is so repIete and. overlooking
with good advice in regard to a diver
sity in raising farm products that it is
given entire below:
sit is a pleasure to note that you
keep hammering away on the PROPOSE
ton that the people Of western Kansas
should more and more develop the
COW, poultry, and similar industries,
instead Of all the time making wheat
their sole or main reliance. 1 believe
you are preaching the true gospel Of
their salvation. Exclusive cotton-rais-
ing in the south, with its resulting
poverty and ignOrance-virtual slaY-
ery-affords q striking example Of
what a one-crOP agriculture leads to.
'iNo community anywhere ever did
or ever will grow rich by adheTinR ex-
clusiveIy to wheat-grOwing. For farm
ers in this state, to risk, year after
year, all their prosperity in any one
crop while persistently ignoring so
many other possibilities Of income
that crowd up to their very door-siIls
is simply insanity and suicide. Saying
this does not argue that wheat should
not continue to be a great staple crop
in Kansas, but the wise farmer who
would prosper must be mindful that
there are various other products Of his
lands besides wheat as steadily and
surely profitable, often, too, in those
inevitable seasons when wheat fails
an any section of country where
Wheat-rRisiDg is the main dependence
there is generally an air of thriftless-
ness, dilapidatiOn, and poor farming,
but have yet to see a region where
improved stock, and especially the
COW, was highly developed and pushed
to the fore that did not show thrift,
tidiness, and the best types of rural
life. Whatever else she may be, nature
made Kansas a stock country, and the
Kansas farmer who shuts his eyes to
the fact is blind and stumbling be-
cause unwilling to see.
"The abundance Of nutritious grass
es, with alfalfa, the sorghums, barley
and windpOwer pump make easily pos
sible in every western country the dual
purpose COW, the beef steer, growthful
shOte, helpful hen, the hardest Of
horses, and the gOIden-hoofed, wool
bearing, meat-yieiding sheep, every one
a mOney-maker. Good stock, home
grown and properly handled, whether
horses or hens, never lost their pro-
ducer anything in Kansas, while fail
ure to make animal husbandry a factor
in his operations keeps many a worthy
man poor.
"a right appreciation of the COW
leads to a demand for the creamery,
where her product, instead Of making
unpalatable grease and a
drudge of the housewife, becomes a
fancy staple, wanted everywhere at
fancy prices. Acountry of prosperous
creamery invariably becomes a coun-
try where comfortable, pleasant homes,
live churches, cOmmodious school
houses, and big red barns abound, none
of which are conspicuous in any land
scspe where a wheat field is the all
feature.
"a moderate diversity, that doesn't /
intelligentIy guided. leads |
towards prosperity, but adherence to |
one uncertain, sOiI-robbing crop, which
gives its grower employment but two
months in the year, is cutting cross
lots to the poOrhouse.r