The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1903-12-03
WHEAT RAISED IN kansas
A Queer Community Not At
fected By Corn Invasion.
FARMERS ARE WEALTHY
Descendants of Russians Who Have
Vast Farms and Whose only Com.
plant Is About Need of Cars to
Carry Away the Crops Water in
the Sands,

Every one knows of Kansas as
State of corn. Its wheat-producing
capacity is of more recent growth.
From a trihe, it has within a decade
grown to enormous proportions. For
merly the western third, approximate
". of Kansas, was counted almost as
q part of the great American desert,
Only the short buffalo grass grew up
on its semi-arid soil. This grass is SO
short and brown that at distance Of
a few yards a bunch OF cattle will
seem to be performing the impossible
feat of grazing upon the dry earth.
Under the parching, hot sun the tree
less plains stretched monotonously
from horizon to horizon, tenanted a
generation ago only by prairie dogs
owls and occasional droves of buffalo
and antelope, with rowing bands of
Indians and now and then the emf
grant trains of prairie schooners"
bound to make pixies Peak or bust"
The Indians were driven away. The
prairie dogs were exterminated-an
so, alas. were the buffalo. Gradually,
westward across the plains, wheat
displaced the buffalo, and then the
corn displaced the wheat Now. here
In western Kansas, only recently de-
SPARED of as the short-grass cCun-
try" wheat is king. Land that five
years ago could be bought for 50 or
less an acre is now held at $40 or
more, At Hays City is situated the
aU,;,t,1t,,wn1
maintained wholly by Kansas, though
managed in harmony with the Ma
tional Department of Agriculture. Its
area, 1900 acres, is said to be the
largest in the world, Its purpose is
to introduce the improved methods of
farming that have made the desert
bloom and the farmers to have fat
bank accounts or private boards.
Old Fort Hays, abandoned in 1889,
left its name to this settlement. Here
the Western trail, replaced by the
rails of the Union Pacific, crossed Big
Greek, in the summer a bed OF sun
caked mud in the spring a raging tor
rem. Like the wild animals, here the
passing white man came to drink and
here the Indian rode to kill Hence
the fort, and hence ultimately the
town, the seat of Ellis County. the
one persistently Democratic county
in Kansas.
Why Democratic? Just because a
large percentage of its settlers were
-agin the government" Whence
they came they had been of the OPP
pressed. Therefore they were natur-
ally, in their new home, of the party
of the opposition. Late in the eigh-
teenth century Russia offered eXemp-
ton from military service, together
with religious freedom, to discomfort
ed peasants in what are now western
provinces of Germany and Austria
Hungary if they would settle and
raise wheat in unoccupied lands of
the Czar. These terms, offered for
ever, induced a large movement of
the population into southern Russia.
But the Russian word forever" can
be interpreted to mean a century"
So the late Gar drafted conscripts
among the third generation of those
semi-Russianized peasants. The re-
suit was an emigration to the United
States, and a part of the stream was
directed to this county of western
Kansas because wheat was the cereal
of their ancestral tradition, and
wheat was the only crop that this
semi-ard land would bear.
To this, their third land of resi-.
dence in modern history, these Ger
an-Russians brought their own GUS
toms, their own costumes, their own
tongue and their Catholic religion.
They retain them all Some of the
first comers are now grandparents,
but 1t is the second generation that
is In the prime of working life and
that is garnering the prosperity of
which their fathers laid the founda
ion in hardship. In the winter they
live in their own towns, of which the
church and parochial school form the
social center In the summer they
i've and work on their farms, always
irving to their towns, deser ed
throughout the week, for Sunday wor
ship. Thus their gregarous instinct
prevails, accompanied with religion
and domestic morality.
Their tongue, which the parochial
schools help to preserve, although il
may vanish in another generation, is
strange survival of low German
only slightly tinctured with house
sold words of Russian. Into this had
been injected an American vocabu
AIRY of terms used in their daily toll
such as the names of agricultural i'm
elements, animals and money. The
tesuc is an odd jargon, not old
enough, as the Pennsylvania Dutch
% have literature of its own.
The industry and thrift of these
strange people is interviewer with an
Inherited distrust They put little
faith in banks or in interest bear
ing investments.
/ was told of one Russian farmer
near Hays City whose crop this yea
will pay him a net profit of $1,000
Will he deposit or invest that money