Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1905-05-20
FARMING FOR METEoRlTes.
A GoOdIy Crop Raised in Kiowa County
Kansas.

Kansas.
DR.. II. II. Snow, of the University
of Kansas, has, in the past fifteen
years, brought together an unusual
collection of meteroic stones that have
fallen in Kansas. Some of them have
n historic as we'll as a scientific inter
est. The finding of more than one of
the lot has saved farmer from the
man who held the mortgage. During
some years of this period meteor hunt
ing became the popular pastlme among
the KiOwa County farmers, and Dr.
Snow got with certain of the stones ro-
mantle stories of their discovery.
1t was in 1890 that the attention of
DR.. Snow was called to the existence
of a collection Of meteoric stones in the
hands of farmer named Kimberly.
Some years before a shower of stones
had fallen. The cowboys knew where
many of them We're, and, knowing
nothing of their value, readily told the
farmer. Mrs. Kimberly, in the course
of her reading, learned that meteorites
We're valuable. Her husband was
skeptical and traded his collection, one
by one, for whatever neighbor would
give. The wife promptly bought the
stones and kept them. When DR.. Snow
heard Of the Kimberly hoard he bought
IT, paying a price large enough to lift
the mortgage from the Kiowa County
farm.
The Kansas collector bought for $500
21S-pound stone that had been placed
on exhibition by farmer in country
grocery store. The bargain was made
while the owner and DR.. Snow drove
to the store. When they arrived a tele-
gram from New York jewelry firm
was handed the owner in which S1100
was offered for the prize. From SON
of the farmer Kimberly already men,
toned DR.. Snow bought one of his
choicest specimens, and the money
came, as had been the case with his
farmer, in time to relieve n pressing
need.
In Washington County, at the north
ern edge Of the State, tenant farmer
named January was lucky enough to
have a 1SS-pound stone fall almost at
his feet. A forty four-pound piece was
broken from it when it strHck, and the
canny finder drove a good trade in
fragments Clipped from the smaller
piece. The large piece he mounted
and exhibited, driving over large por-
ton of the State with his "meterorite
show" and gathering in some hundreds
of dollars in admission fees before DR..
Snow bought the stone.
A young woman schoolteacher, who
saw this Washington County meteorite
fall, described it in a letter to DR..
Snow: Il was driving along the road
beside the cornfield in which January
was blowing, 1 heard a rumbling
sound. l thought it was my parasol
rubbing against the cart wheel. The
sound frightened my horse.
Looking ahead, 1 saw a blue streak
passing overhead. Upon strik
ing the ground, it burst with great vio
lence. The meteor fell within
fifty yards of where was, and drove
to the place. 1t left hole in the earth
about three feet in diameter, two feet
deep on the north side, and three feet
on the south side" The schoolteacher
and the farmer dug the stone out, after
Quieting both the horse hitched to the
cart and the plow team. Before the
sale of this specimen was completed
the owner of the farm, a New York
woman, put in a claim for the stone on
the ground that it belonged, like the
soil, to the holder of the title.
During the time when meteorltes
Were being found most often in ISiowa
County the farmers plowed their land
deep and often. They illustrated the
old fable of the poor man who prayed
to the genii to show him the road to
riches. In answer to his prayer the
command to dig for the gold that zu"G
buried under his farm was given. Dig
ging deep, and planting Incidentally
while searching for the gold, brought
the riches he sought-from the mar
kets. So, the search for meteorites
has, in one form or another, brought
prosperity to the imaginative Kansas
farmer.