Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1907-12-12
THE PASSING OF
AIN INDUSTRY
Kansas Abandons the
Castor Bean, to Which
in 1879 She Devoted
$4,000 Acres.
[IifS6S1s1S2S9S1G1S251E251S152

EiGI51S1S251S1G1S
In the list of Kansas Crops there is
a wide variety represented, and
among these are several of great i'm
portance that have come into the
States agriculture in recent years
and have been no small factor in in
creasing prosperity. The merits of
these acquisitions have properly been
much exploited and their benefactions
yearly extended by charging annual
ly their areas. While their increase
in public favor is remarked on every
hand, little note has been taken of
several products that in the same
time have diminished until they are
of no practical consequence.
One that no longer appears in the
statistics as reported by assessors to
the State Board of Agriculture is
hemp, a crop, however, that never
was extensively cultivated in Kan
sas, and another with scarcely usf
fcient area this year to maintain
record is castor beans, the growing of
which in former years was a consid-
cradle industry. The passing of the
castor bean crop in Kansas has been
so gradual for the last quarter of
century that it's disappearance was
unnoted other than by the Board of
Agriculture, whose records show its
steady decline and practical elimina-
ton from the States husbandry, and
today Kansas has no castor bean in
dustry worthy the name, while thirty
years ago it was looked upon as one
of great promise.
The rise and fall of the castor bean
in the estimation of the Kansas far
mers forms an interesting chapter
of the States agricultural history,
for at one time Kansas was reckoned
as a chief yielder of this product and
the crops grown in Kansas, Missouri,
Oklahoma and adjacent territory in
years gone by probably met half the
demand of the American market. That
Kansas is yet looked upon by strang
ers as a castor bean centre is indi-
Gated by the many requests received
by Secretary Coburn asking as to the
present years crop and literature
bearing on the industry.
AS a matter of fact Kansas has
had comparatively small annual areas
for the last fifteen years, f1uctuating
more or less for the fist seven of the
fifteen, and beginning with 1900, the
decrease each succeeding year, eX-
cepting one, has been notably mark
ed, until in 1907 the assessors in their
rounds found in the entire State only
eleven acres devoted to castor beans,
Bourbon County being credited with
five of these, Elk with two, and Fin
ney with four acres. In 1906 the
area for the State was fifty acres,
largest area in castor beans ever re-
ported for the State was more than
$4,000 acres in 1879, and of this near
lY the whole was in the Eastern two
tiers of counties south of the Kansas
River. That year Neosho was re-
ported with 10000 acres, the largest
area for any one county, and Frank
lin second, with 1905 acres, either
of which is more than the area for
the State for any year since 1891. In
1879 the value of the crop amounted
to more than three-quarters of a mil
lion, and that a product bringing
this much yearly income could dis
appear without leaving a void IN the
States profitably productive area may
be accounted for by the adaptability
of soil and conditions for other crops
equally if not more profitable than
castor beans in the palmiest days of
the industry.
The crop never became general
throughout the State, and few coun-
ties outside those in the southeastern
part attempted their growing in any
pretentious way The period from
1874 to 1882 was perhaps the most
prosperous for the castor bean indus
try in Kansas, and in these years it
reached its high water mark. The
southeastern portion of the State
seemed especially adapted to these
beans, and their growers in the earl
Ter days realized snug profits. In the
early sos, however, prices began to
decline, owing to the diminished
uses for castor oil, other material
largely supplanting it as a lubricant
and in soapmaking, while in medi-
cine also it seems to have diminished
in popularity. The lower prices nat
urally caused farmers to lose inter
est in castor beans, as other crops
could be more proitably grown, and
from a commercial point of view the
industry has since declined to moth
ing.-New York Tribune Farmer.