The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1901-08-28
Wssfe the Drought did the Greatest
Hee..@.:.

Among ell Of the different sections
OF the country which have been more
or less affected by the recent extended
period Of drought no particular local
ity has sufferad more sev trely, and
sustained by reason Of the destruction
of growing crops, greater financial
loss, than the eastern half of Kansas.
Especially is this true Of the northern
part of this section. The northeast
ern portion Of Kansas is an ideal spot
for farming purposes. One can scarce
IL conceive Of country which could
5e possessed of greater natural agri-
cultural advantages. Those whose
ideas of this great agricultural State
have been formed through newspaper
articles mistakenly imagine that the
whole State is more or less broad,
level, expansive prairie. The north
eastern section is of the opposite-of
a very rolling end broken character.
Sloping back gradually and steadily to
the south and westward from the Mis-
souri, River, which cuts the north
eastern corner, the country is divers;-
fed and drained by the many streams
tributary to the Big Muddy. Be-
tween these streams lies country un-
surpassed in the fertility of it's soil
and unequaled in it's production Of
corn and wheat.
1t is this particular section which
always heightens the States average
in the percentage column in the pro-
duction of bread-growing crops. It is
here that the farmers have cultivated
and harvested, within the last FIVE
years, the major portion Of those mag
nifcent crops Of corn and wheat the
total market value of which is esti-
mated by the national Secretly of
Agriculture to have been 1913, 133,-
347, or over SIS, 100000 greater than
any other State in the American
Union.
There are perhaps twenty y-6ve coun-
ties embraced in this section. Tho
country is thickly settled and magni-
ficently improved. The farmers who
thirty or even fifty years ago set
tied and improved this country
have pro6ted by the bounties Of
generous nature, and are to-day q
wealthy class. They are we'll able
financially, for the most part, to stand
the loss which the destruction of their
crops this year has entailed upon
them. But they are unused to crop
failures, and look upon the present
one as disastrous calamity. Only
once before in half century has the
crop failure in this section been any
where near as general and complete as
the present one.
The loss this year in Kansas by rea-
son Of the dearth of rainfall is official
ly estimated at something over $780,.
600, 900, most Of which will be borne
by the farmers of the northeastern
section.
Contrary to customary conditions,
the precipitation this year mas been
confined to the central-western sec.
tion Of the State. Usually it is the
inhabitants of the western prairie
counties who experience the hard.
shiys Of droughts and crop failures,
but this year the situation is reversed,
and the farmers Of the usually favor.
ed and prosperous eastern section are
made to feel the effect of these un-
fortunate conditions.
Here the great fields which hereto.
fore at this season Of the year have
been covered with magnificent crops
of tasseling corn, green pastures and
meadows, growing vegetation and dot.
ted with the great ''stack yards" of
harvested wheat and oats, now present
to the eye of the traveller an extremely
arid and desolated appearance. The
great corn fields, thousands Of acres
in extent, contain only dried, stunted
and eariess stalks, rustling like cut
fodder as they are swayed by the mo-
tion Of tho ever-present winds. The
oats crop is total and entire failure,
maturing and heading out at height
of not over six inches, with no grain
in the heads.
The meadows and hay lands look
like tho arid deserts Of New Mexico, q
brown, burnt carpet, covering the sur
face Of the cracked and blistered earth
Fruit Of varied kinds and varieties,
in the production of which certain
localities Of this section are celebrated,
are either total or partial loss.
Vegetation of every description
bears the withered aspect of the au-