The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1906-09-20
SEVENTH YEAR OF FAT FOR KANSAS
BY c. M. HARGER.


is one of the greatest, if not the
greatest, years in Kansas history"
said Secretary Coburn, the famous
score keeper for this states pros
perity, land the farmers are get
ting the best of it. No mortals on
earth anywhere are so we'll pre-
pared for happiness"
He had just completed his esti-
mate of practically 100,000,000
bushels of high grade wheat as
the crop of the state this year.
And this crop-the greatest fais4
ed by any state in the nation
comes not after famine, but as the
climax of seven prosperous YEARS
in which debts have been paid,
/ mortgages cancelled, improvements
OF every sort added.
More than that, the farmers did
not know they had it until harvest.
Up to three weeks before harvest
| farmers counted on only moder-
ate or perhaps an average crop.
When the separators began pour
ing stream of golden grain into
the wagons, they woke UP and add
ed $4,000, 900 bushels to their ,esti-
mate. That is pretty good find!
Little wonder that a farmer 10
miles from town in central Kansas
awoke one morning during thresh-
ing time and remarked:
''The wheat is so good l believe
I'll have an automobile"
when we go to town We'll see
about it," replied his wife.
mo; l want it now" He went
to the telephone and called up the
county seat, By 10 o'clock he had
a touring car at his door; by noon
he was soaring the cattle with its
Gabriel horn, and that evening ,he
took the family 20 town to hear a
band concert.
They are saving their wheat mon
ey. Much of it is going into banks.
The state has bank to every 1884
people, more than any other state.
Hundreds of them have farmers for
shareholders chiefly. Their only diff
fculty is to find places to loan the
deposits.
One country bank with $4,000
capital recently had 100000 de-
posits, and three-fourths of this in
cash, because no one in the neigh
borhood wanted to borrow it. 1t
was in the heart of the wheat belt
where 20 new banks have been
But they are getting good things
out of life, too. Why not with $780,
100000 in cash for single crop?
What are you doing here?' was
asked of a mountain resort railway
passenger agent in August. This
Is a farming section" 1t was west
ern Kansas.
That's why I am here. l have
sold enough tickets to farmers who
are going to climb Pixies peak to
earn my years salary. They are
the ones who have the money! i
Ten years ago house furnace
was rare in Kansas. Now the hard
ware and plumbing wagons are
scattered through the country set
ting up furnaces in .armers' houses. II
Same way with bath tubs, same
way with telephones, rubber tired
buggies, pianos mot organs as of
old, and all the multitude of things
that go to make up prosperity.
1t costs 1871 to raise an acre of
wheat, first and last; 20 bushels at
60 cents is a profit of almost S. an
acre-many fields produce 35 BUSH
els. Multiply it by 500, a common
acreage, and see where you are.
You, too, would enjoy life.
The farmers wife comes in for
her share-and she deserves it. She
had learned a great deal about the
best mode of living in the past six
years.
In one little town 800 phono-
graphs have been sold in the past
year, at $40 to $50 each. In that
county are 5000 farmers telephones
two of the 25 rural mail carriers