The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1901-12-10
Gigantic Experiment Station
Proposed For Kansas.
Secretary Coburn and Agricul-
tural Regents at Fort Hays.
WILL HAVE "a FARMS.
Would Conduct Tests For Bene-
fit of Western Kansas.
Present Station at College Is
Entirely Inadequate.

secretary GODurn, OF Jnc Sldlc bOeA "a
OF agriculture, is in Hays City today in
his capacity as a member of the board
of regents of the State Agricultural col
lege- He was accompanied by Senator
s J. Stewart of Allen county. who is
another of the regents. They expected
TO be joined at Manhattan by Prof
Cottrell, of the Agricultural college ex-
pertinent station.
The object of the trip is to look over
the land which comes into possession
of the regents from the old Fort Hays
reservation, and to plan action with re-
gard to it, A report will be made to
the board of regents at a meeting at
Manhattan tomorrow
By act of congress the federal gov
ernment gives up its claim to the old
Fort Hays military reservation, in Ellis
county, and turns it over to the state
There are approximately twelve sec
tiOnS in the reserve, and half OF II mas
been allotted to the State Agricultural
college.
The idea that the regents now have
in mind is to establish an experiment
station a big scale, with special
reference to the needs of western KAN
sas- Secretary Coburn and his assOci-
ates are looking over the lay of the
land today with that idea in mind
The experiment station at Manhattan,
which is conducted in connection with
the State Agricultural college, is not
large enough TO make all the expert
N ents necessary For instance, in
many cases it is possible to plant only
small plants of certain grains or for
age plants-perhaps a tenth. or a quar-
ter, or half 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 Il
farmer raises them.
On the Fort Hays reservation the
regents will have from twenty to twen-
ty-four farms of $50 acres each, on
which to conduct experiments. 1t will
De possible to plant or SOW fields of
forty and eighty acres in the place of
little plats of ground the size of a
town lot Experiments can be conduct
ed on an extensive scale with wheat
corn, barley, alfalfa, kaffir corn, COW
peas, and everything else that may be
of benefit to a western Kansas farmer
on the same scale and under the same
conditions that the farmer himself
would be placed
Then again there is a great difference
between eastern and western Kansas.
Manhattan represents the conditions il.
eastern Kansas, and crops which are
unsuccessful there might be extremely
successful 200 miles further west. For
instance, the experiments at the Agri-
cultural college experiment station
proved that the soil there was not of
the right quality to produce sugar beeLs
10 advantage. The per cent of sugar
in the beets was not large enough TO
Justify their cultivation. But recent de-
velopments have proven that south
western Kansas is an ideal locality for
sugar beet raising and the manufacture
of beet sugar. 1t must be realized that
Kansas is practically empire with
vast diversity of interests
The location of the Fort Hays reser-
walton makes it ideal for an experiment
station for western Kansas. 1t lies
nearly 100 miles west of the center Of
the state and is practically the center
of the western half of Kansas 1t lies
in one of the great wheat counties but
Is on the border of the great cattle
ranges An experiment station such AS
the regents OF the State Agricultural
college contemplates would be of incaI-
culable benefit to the agricultural inter-
ests of the western half of Kansas
There can be no doubt that the knowl-
edge gained by the experiment station
at Manhattan has been extremely valu-
able TO the progressive farmer in the
eastern and central portions of the
state An effort has been made to make
Que allowances for the difference in eli
matte conditions and soils of different
localities. but the results have not al
ways been as satisfactory to those in
charge of the experiments as they wish
ed In issuing bulletins giving the re-
suits of the various experiments the at
tentiOn of the farmers is generally call
ed TO these facts, especially to the vast
differences prevailing between agricul-
tural conditions in eastern and western
Kansas The intelligent farmer has used
the suggestions made in these bulletins
to good advantage. but they have nee
essarily been more practical for the
eastern farmer than for those in the
west.
Ihe proposed experiment farms on
the Fort Hays reservation Will probably
be OF. even greater benefit to the west
ern Kansas farmers than has the Man
haitian station to those further east. be-
cause of the much larger scale on which
the experiments can be conducted A
series of 20 or more quarter section
farms Will give an immense opportunity
for all sorts of farming experiments.
Secretary Coburn, Senator Stewart
and Prof Cottrell Will go over the land
carefully today and the details of ths.
proposed plan viii be considered in their
report at the meeting of the board Of
regents at Manhattan tomorrow.