Meade County news. [volume] (Meade, Kan.) 1900-1918, 1902-05-29
About Meade County.

I
York City. Meade county is also
mentioned:
SIT Is entirely safe to say that at
present there is no state in the
Union whose fruitful soil is being
more rapidly acquired by sturdy, in
telligent and industrious homeseek-
ers than is that of Kansas. And
while Kansas is generally regarded
as an old state, it is fact that her
population is yet light in compari-
SON with her extent and that she has
incalculable resources yet to be de-
veloped.
In every agricultural state in the
Union, the price ofland has advanc-
ed with the growth of population.
Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Southern
Minnesota, Eastern South Dakota,
Nebraska and kansas-all bear tes-
timony supporting this proposition.
AS the tide of empire has swept west
ward-as the settling up of the coun-
try has extended to. the West-so
has the price of lands always risen,
so they always will rise.
1t is SO plain that he who runs
may read, that the steady tide of
immigration sweeping into Kansas
is bound to rapidly enhance the
price of her lands. This has al
ready transpired in the most popu-
lous counties in the state, where
lands are easily sold to-day at five
times the price they would have
brought not many years ago. Who
will dare to say that they have un-
dergone any change except in price?
Who, that they will raise a bushel
more grain, or grow blade of
grass more. The change is in price
only.
The foregoing reflections were
suggested by the writer by some
very interesting facts furnished him
regarding Meade county, Kansas,
by Mr.. c. P. Fullington, who is
taking an influential part in the de-
velopment of the splendid agricul-
tural resources of this county.
Comparisons can hardly be called
.odious, when they concern the ag-
ricultural lands of Kansas for this
state is blessed with soil of such
matchless fertility, and has so little
unproductive land, that her farmers
everywhere are satisfied with their
conditions and generally imbued
with the idea that their own partic-
ular- land is the best that the sun
shines upon. But if the report of
the Kansas Board of Agriculture on
the value. of farm products for 1901
is to be relied upon, the farmers Of
Meade County have good grounds
for believing that they are the most
favored tillers of the soil in this
prosperous commonwealth.
All cereal crops flourish in Meade
county, it is also favored by splen-
did grazing lands, but it is pre-emi
nently a wheat and alfalfa country,
the latter being Its most valuable
and profitable crop as, indeed. it is,
in all countries where it grows.
The prolific character of lands in
this county is we'll shown by the re-
port of Kansas Board of Agriculture
above referred to which shows that
in 1901 the value of farm products
per capita was s23o. These figures
are largely in excess of those for
Sedgwick, Sumner and Reno coun-
ties, although these three latter coun-
ties are among the richest, most
productive and prosperous in Kan
sas. The figures for Meade county
are all the more remarkable from
the TACT that the three-hfths of the
population is in towns and non-pro-
ductive from the agricultural stand
point. Again 1901 was the dryest
year that the country has known
since its settlement. Corn was q
failure owing to this fact, but wheat
averaged twelve bushels per acre:
barley averaged seventeen bushel:
per acre; alfalfa four and one-hali
tons per acre. The total value Of
farm products of the county fol
1901 was $3.50, 4Io.84. Yet only Ic
per cent of the area of the county
was in use.
With nine-tenths of this magnifi
cent county still awaiting develop
ment it can be safely asserted tina
nowhere in the West is greater o.
better opportunities offered to the
the homeseeker and investor. par
ticularly as the county is traversec
by the Rock Island through line tC
California and access to good mar
kets is assured.