The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-04-29
COTTON AND HENS
The Resources of Kansas Amaze
Mr.. w. e. Curtis.
But Best of All He Likes the
Helpful Fowl.
MANY BOYS AND GIRLS
Have Received an Education
Through the Poultry Yard.
A Cotton Mill and Road Agents
Are Noticed.
BOYS AND GIRLS


date line of Independence. He says:
The first cotton mill in Kansas is now
being built in this city. The Santa Fe
Railroad company gave the land, the
citizens subscribed money to put up
brick building 200 feet long, and a
Rhode Island company will furnish a
plant of modern machinery for the
manufacture of denims and other
coarse cotton fabrics. From 60 to IS
skilled operatives will be imported from
New England at the start, and it is ex-
pected to increase this force to 200
hands by educating local labor. The
power will be furnished from the nat
ural gas wells which are found in all
the towns in this section of Kansas and
flow with enormous force. The cotton
will come from Oklahoma and Indian
Territory, where it is produced in quite
as good quality and as economically as
in Arkansas or Tennessee. Some cot
ton is produced in the southern counties
of Kansas also, and the erection of this
mill is expected to encourage that pro-
ductiOn.
Several large flour mills and brick
factories are run by natural gas. Bricks
are shipped to Texas, Louisiana and
other southern states, and one of the
companies is now making u contract to
ship a cargo to Yucatan. Much of the
Kansas flour goes to Europe. The To-
Glasgow, where it is popular because
of it's strength. 1t has a darker tint
than the Minneapolis flour, and it is not
so popular in the American markets,
but the working people of Great Brit
ain prefer it because it is stronger than
they can get anywhere else. Mr. Page,
one of the Topeka millerS, ships 1000
barrels a day for export
This is a great hen and egg country.
The Kansas farmer has gone in for di-
ffseN1 tons IxTGalN
than his neighbors in some of the other
new states. 1t is the result of expert
,ence. The folly of putting all of ones
eggs in a single basket has been dem
onstrated beyond a doubt in this state,
as half the farmers can tell you. Dur
ing the hard times they learned that a
single crop was little better than no
crop at all. Therefore diaries and
creamerieS have been springing up all
over the state, until the total value of
dairy products in 1897 was $5,259,752,
and in 1898 increased 10 per cent to So,
049, BOZ. From the estimates or the state
agricultural department the increase
for 1899 will be still greater.
But it is from 1.-The helpful hem that
the people of Kansas have received the
greatest amount of encouragement and
consolation during hard times. The an
nual report of the state agricultural So
ciety says:
while everything else was going to
rack and ruin she increased and multi
piled; she supported herself and her
family too. The very insects which
would have despoiled the farm she fat
tened upon, and laying her daily egg
the blessed egg that took the place OF
beef and milk, mutton and portland in
good time, after all these services, sur
rendered her toothsOme body to the
cause of humanity
The value of the poultry and eggs
sold by Kansas in 1897 was $3,S5O,994,
and in 1898 it was 81 145, 1873 Millions of
Skinned
eastern markets every year. They are
bought up by local commission men in
the villages and towns and forwarded
by the fast freightS every day TO Kan
SaS City ,LeaVenWorth and other centerS,
where they are packed for the eastern
and export markets, and are held in
cold storage houses to await the de-
lnand. 1t costs little labor and money
to raise eggs and poultry. 1t Is usually
the pleasant duty of the housewives
and farmers daughters, and many of
them clothe themselves and buy their
books, music and newspapers with the
proceeds.
Many a Kansas girl has been educa-
ted by the helpful hen" Many an as
piring youth has been aided in obtain
ing start toward the goal of fame at
the law school, the medical school or
the theological seminary by the poultry
yard behind his fathers barn, and
there was never a more just and de-
serving tribute paid to humble useful
ness than that 1 have quoted above.
One of the big firms handling poultry
in this state has its headquarters at
Wichita and ships 500 cars of poultry
and eggs every year to New York, Phil
adeIphia and many other cities in the
far east, where it has contracts to sup
ply steamship companies, hotelS ana
market men. It makes contracts with
farmers to supply so many eggs and so
many chickens for the season, deliver
ed central points, where there are cold
storage facilities. There the eggs are
inspected and packed, the chickens are
killed, dressed and stored until there IS
a car load. This Wichita firm ships a
good deal to Mexico, San Francisco and
Denver and the mining towns of Col
orado and Arizona, where eggs and
poultry command a better price than
in the east, but the demand is compar-
atively limited.
Very few chickens are raised by arti-
fetal process. The incubator is not pop
ular. The farmers say it costs more
than it comes to- and that Gods plan
| of creating poultry is the best.
This morning we visited a big pack
ing house at the pretty town of Win
| field, which, by the way, is the most
attractive we have seen in Kansas, and
Mr.. Baden the proprietor, told US that
he handled 80, 600 cases of eggs last year,
| thirty dozen in the case, which, you can
ascertain by a simple calculation, means
| 2,400, 600 dozen, or IS, SOC, 600 eggs. Every
| one of those eggs was carefully inspect
4 ed in a dark room, where rows of young
men were sitting behind a couple of
holes in the wall just big enough to ad-
| init the end of an egg. 1t looked like an
| extensive exhibition of chiaro-Scuro, but
| was the busiest and most important
portion of the establishment Taking
| up two eggs in each hand with a dex-
\ terity due to long experience, the testers
| would turn them quickly toward the
| light for an instant, and then drop them
! into different boxes that stood at their
J sides. In one box went the perfect
| eggs; in another those that were dirty
| or doubtful, and in the third those