The Goodland republic., 1906-01-05
WEST WAS KNOCKED OUT
WHEN IT DIDN'T RAIN, AND
WHEN PEOPLE HADN'T MONEY.
Men Who Were Able to stay Have
Become RfcIl-PeOple Know
How TO Work the Soil

The prosperity Of western Kansas
and the present condition Of the peo-
/ pie offers a great contrast to the hard
/ times experienced by those who were
/ in that country ten or twelve years
1 ago A finer crop was never harvest
/ ed in western Kansas than in 1892.
] Nature seemed TO be simply trying to
| unload herself Wheat, barley, rye
/ and oats yielded so bOuntifulIy that
/ the market price was very poor. Corn
/ in the extreme western part Of the
/ state, yielded so bushels per acre and
/ sold for Is cents a bushel. A few
/ Of the unwise burned corn for fuel.
/ finding it cheaper when the distance
\ to market was considered, than coal
! Everybody went crazy over the
| crops, and arranged to put in a larger
/ acreage the next year Cattle were
| traded for horses. and the horses
/ were mOrtgaged to secure payments
I on more machinery Land was al
most as high as it is at present The
/ Union Pacific sold land twenty miles
south Of old Fort Wallace for as high
as IS a acre. The following winter
was unusually dry The usual SHOWS
| failed Then, when spring opened.
/ the rains were scarce and the wheat
/ failed TO sprOut Thousands and thou
1 sands OF acres never produced a spear
Of wheat
When it was seen that the wheat
could not make a crop, the settlers
disked up the ground and put in corn,
cane, kaf1r corn and milIet- Much
OF this did not make a crop worth
gathering A new pest appeared in
the shape Of gOphers- As a result Of
a dry winter and spring. every moth
ers son Of them, and the daughters.
too, lived and multiplied like flies. 1t
sounds mighty queer TO an eastern
Kansas farmer when il is stated that
there were so many Of these pests that
it was impossible to get a stand Of
any kind Of grain. but it is a fact
Ed Gilbert, who owns ranch on the
Smoky Hill river, near Wallace, was
then farming or rather trying TO
farm on the high land several miles
south He had out a field Of corn,
and tried to protect it by putting out
poisoned corn The writer asked him
one day how it worked Whenever
poison one" he said, "a hundred
come 10 its funeral"
Finally to help rid the country Of
them and help the people make a
living. the Wallace county commission
ers. offered a bounty Of five cents
apiece in county script for the scalps
Of gophers and rabbits The hunt af-
fOrded the settlers a little excitement
TO take their minds OF the winds,
which blew like all possessed A
barrel Of water, several buckets and
old tin cans and all the family would
be loaded into one wagon and follow
ed by the dog, they would start across
the prairie. As soon as a prize was
sighted the children would take after
il If the dog didn't see it, and run
IL into a hole Then the man Of the |
house OF one Of the older children |
would follow up with a bucket Of /
water which he poured into the hole /
into which the gopher disappeared |
Out il would come, rather dazed by /
the sudden a-n, and before it could /
make its getaway, would be caught /
and killed. This would be kept UP /
until time for meal, or until night 4
came on Many a family almost made \
their living tins way
The scrip the county issued was 4
first taken up by the merchants at 4
90 cents on the dollar. Finally so /
much Of it was issued that it became \
almost valueless and the county dis
continued the bounty. If the writer \
remembers correctly, Wallace county
had a case in the supreme court last
winter over this scrip.
Some funny things happened in
connection with this. Wichita cOun-
ty, just south Of Wallace, also put on
the bounty, but required the tails in
stead Of the scalps to be produced.
As you might conclude, Wichita cOun-
ty paid for tails, and Wallace county
for heads from the same gophers. A
woman undertook to manufacture
scaIps She cut them from the hide
of the body and burned holes where
the eyes were supposed to be with a
hot iron. The county discovered
them, but nothing was done to her.
The Lord knows she needed the
money bad enough to do almost any
thing to get it One day the county
clerk discovered he was having an
unusually big run On examination
he had failed to lock the outside door
to a room where he had been throw
ing the scalps and some boys had
slipped in and stole the scalps and
sold them to him again
When the crops failed the people
began to leave The next year the
crops failed and more people left
The next year the crops failed again,
but few people left for the simple
reason that they had nothing to get
away on This was the time when it
became Bleeding Kansas" Dame
nature, who is generally generous,
remain in the country until there was
mighty little left Horses could
scarcely be given away. Following
the panic Of 1903 a $4,000 mortgage
took 1000 head Of western horses at
Rocky Ford, Colo. Men put colts in
pasture and when they got to be
work horses the owner Of the pasture
sold them TO get his pasture bill A
farmer, who had brought his cattle
from Iowa. sold out his herd OF seven
" cows. heifers two and three years
DID. steers and calves, for $12-5O per
head
The bank at Sharon Springs had
IL seemed. on every thing
in the country When the people
could not pay they drove in their
horses and cattle, hauled in their
farm machinery and turned ali over
to the bank The prairie around
Sharon Springs was covered with cat
lie and horses belonging to the bank
and half the townsite seemed to be
covered with wagons. binders, plOws,
larrOWs and all kinds OF farm mach
merry When the state farther east Z
had a wheat crop a lot OF this was
Oaded on cars and shipped out Aid
,ame in from all over the east and
when a car or box arrived it was in