The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-05-09
KANSAS news.
Thomas County Is Going to
Have More ColOnists.
VIII Send Agents to Europe to
Exploit the Country.
CROPS WILL BE GOOD.
Will Especially Try to Secure
SWedes and Germans.
Have Much Praise for Campbell
System of Cultivation.

Colby Kan, May 9.-The semi-arid
belt of Kansas is going to produce a
forty Observation-Disclosures wheat crop this
season. 1t is to be due in part to the
copious rainfall of the spring and win
ter and in the main to the saving of the
water effected by the Campbell system
of soil culture.
So said G. r. Werner a citizen of this
county for the past seventeen years
who is making arrangements to go to
Europe to induce settlers to buy West
ern Kansas lands. He viii take with
him one or more of the European resi-
dents of Thomas county to help him in
his colonization efforts 1t is expected
BY the colonization people of Kansas
that many Germans, SWedes and Danes
VIII be induced to locate in Kansas this
summer. The business cards of Mr.
Werner are inscribed "Ehrlich. waehrt
about honesty and the verify of the
prospect that awaits the settler from
Europe.
4The wheat prospect in western kan
sas,. said Mr.. Werner. is the best thai
we have had for years. The rainfall
has been copiOus. The cultivation of
the soil has been in the most approved
manner. The average Weld expected
this year is forty bushels to the acre
There are fields that viii go fifty bush
els or more. The hardest rain to visit
the semi-arid belt in years fell Tuesday
lit washed out rOadbeds and DELAYED
trains. These rains are in pursuance of
infal1ble weather signs that are we'll
known to the settlers of this section.
We expect heavy June rains as d con-
sequence OF the conditions which fore
told the recent rains. The people of
Western Kansas figure that heavy
spring fogs mean June rains. The
heavy fogs We're noticed in Thomas and
adjoining counties this spring, and the
wheat growers of experience there inn
mediately began to expect a big crop.
Land in northwestern Kansas can be
purchased for from s. to $40 an acre
now OF course 1t cannot long remain at
that figure with a wheat yield of $50
an acre in value That is what we ex-
pect this season. There is no more gov
ernment land in this section 1t has all
been entered. The day of the home
steader there has gone. And that is one
OF the reasons the country is coming to
the front The people who are there now
have invested their money in the soil
and are making every effort to realize
the greatest revenue possible from the
investment.
The good crops of recent years in
western Kansas have been, more than
TO any other cause. the result of intel
ligent cultivation of the soil The
campbell system of cultivation ana
moisture conservation is coming to be
generally practiced. 1t has been advo-
Gated for a long time, but the farmers
had to be shown before they would gem
orally adopt the system. They have
been convinced now. however. and the
treatment invented for the arid belt is
the saving clause now for many acres
of good land once deemed too dry The
system is to stir the surface of the soil
IN the early spring with a disk to the
depth Of three inches. In June the
ground is slowed six or seven inches
deep. The pillow is followed by a sub
surface packer, which makes the bot
tom OF the turrOW solid. excluding the
surface air, leaving the ground in ideal
CONDITION for seed bed. The surface
cultivation is kept up until seeding time
Inis makes dust mulch on the surface
10 depth of six or seven inches The
packed sub-surface is fun of the Win
ter and spring moisture and is prevent
ca Irom evaporation by the surface
mulch Of dust
The county superintendent of Logan
county is an earnest believer in the
system of soil culture invented by Mr.
Campbell' and he told me this week
that in his 90-acre wheat field he sank
an auger to a depth of six feet the other
day and found moisture that deep.
There is no chance of that field being
caught by a drouth. for the moisture
stored there viii be. constantly drawn
10 the surface, and it is sufficient to last
the season through to maturity of the
wheat, even without further rainfall
This 90-acre field was seeded last fail at
the usual time, 80 pounds of wheat be-
ing sown to the acre. The field has been