Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1901-12-14
The Fort HAYS Reservation.

hoOOASUnA oOOuA VI bLiC JbdGc DOdIu
of Agriculture, was in Hays City Tues
day in his capacity as member of the
board of regents of the State Agri-
cultural college. He was accompanied
bv Senator s. j. Stewart, of Allen
county, who is another OF the regents.
They expected to be joined at Man.
haitian by Prof. Cottrell, of the Agri-
cultural college experiment station.
The object of the trip is to look
over the Ian which comes into pos
session of I'll regents from the old
Fort Hays ervation, and to plan
action in reg to it. A report will
be made to I'll board of regents at a
meeting at M haitian Wednesday,
By act of congress the federal gov
eminent gives up its claim to the old
Fort Hays military reservation, in
Ellis county, and turns it over to the
state. They are approximately twelve
sections in the reserve and half of it
has been allotted to the State Agri-
cultural college.
The idea that the regents now have
in mind is to establish an experiment
station on big scale, with special
reference to the needs of western
Kansas. Secretary Coburn and his
associates are looking over the lay of
the land to-day with that idea in
mind.
The experiment station at Manhat-
tan, which is conducted in connection
with the State Agricultural college,
is not large enough to make all the
experiments necessary. For instance,
in many cases it is possible to plant
only small plants of Gel tain grains or
forage plants-perhaps a tenth, or a
quarter, or half an acre. While these
are extremely useful as far as they go,
they are not as practical as they would
be if conducted on the same scale that
a farmer raises them.
On the Fort Hays reservation the
regents will have from twenty to
twentv-four farms of 100 acres each,
on which to conduct experiments. 1t
will tie possible to plant and SOW fields
OF forty and eighty acres in tue place
OF little plats of ground the size of Il
town lot. Experiments can be con-
Quoted on an extensive scale with
wheat, corn, barley, alfalfa, kaffir
corn, cow peas, and everything else
: that may be OF benefit to western
KansassfdFmer'e on the same scale and
under the same conditions that the
farmer himself would be placed.
Then again there is a great differ
ence between eastern and western
Kansas Manhattan represents the
conditions in eastern Kansas, and
crops which are unsuccessful there
might be extremely successful 200
miles further west. For instance, the
experiments at the Agricultural col
lege experiment station proved that
the soil there was not OF the right
quality to produce sugar beets to adj
vantage. The per cent OF sugar in the
beets was not large enough to Justify
their cultivation. But recent devel-
opments have proven that southwest
ern Kansas is an ideal locality for
sugar beat raising and the manufac-
ture of beet sugar. 1t must be real
lied that Kansas is practically an en-
pre- with vast diversity of interests
The location of the Fort Hays res
ervation makes it ideal for an expert
ment station for western Kansas. 1t
lies nearly 100 miles west of the CEN
ter of the state. and is practically the
center of the western half of Kansas. |
1t lies in one of the great wheat coun-
ties, but is on the border of the great |
cattle ranges. An experiment station |
such as the regents of the State Ag-
ricultural college contemplates would /
De OF incalculable benefit to the agri- |
cultural interests of the western half |
OF Kansas.
There can be no doubt that the I
knowledge gained by the experiment |
station at Manhattan has been ex-
tremely valuable to the progressive
farmer in the eastern and central por-
tionS OF the state. An effort has been
tc make due allowance for the differ |
ence in climatic conditions and soils
of different localities, but the results
have not always been as satisfactory
to those in charge of the experiments
as they wished In issuing bulletins
giving results of the various experi-
ments the attention of the farmers is
generally called to these facts. especi-
ally to the vast differences prevailing
between the agricultural conditions
in eastern and western Kansas. The
Intelligent farmer has used the sug-
gestions made in these bulletins to
good advantage, but they have nee
eSSarily been more practical for the