The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-10-03

aspiration which its people and their
tatners and mothers brought al the
way from Plymouth Rock and James
town. They fought first and conquer
ca, now they are about to become ae-
qua1nted. with that obese handmaiden
OF the victor, alum ctfm dig. They will
not De idle for they can't: it isn't in
their blood. They will Woodwork
hard but they will work more wisely
and for higher things
fhe past few years." a gentleman
or Topeka said to me- the people of
Kansas have been so busy making new
money that they haven't stopped to
take care of what they had made al
ready. They are hospitabie and free
handed, lavish, in some ways even
spendthrfft, but it rs nature that has
taught them that. Production has been
their consuming passion, and produce
ton has been ridiculously easy. When
they came here and in a decent sea-
son had only to ploy the prairie ground,
seed 1t, and reap an abundant harvest,
they thought they had found the PROM
ised land, and they were right. But
having found it they abandoned the old,
thrifty farming methods of the east.
You say they leave the farm ma
chfnery = plows, harrows. binders
standing in the field to rust and rot.
1t is true. Drive out in any direction
along In November and you will see
these fine machines in the fields, ex-
R0Scu 10 AH SOTIS Oh weather. Is
safe to say that most of the farm ma
chinery In Kansas is stored under a
| sky roof Bot It Is simply because the
farmers have been too busy garnerfng
their crops to spare the time to take
care of the tools. They figure, and
rightly, that If they get the products
of these vast acreages into the barns
safely. the price of a machine or two
will be well lost. 1t Is not bad reason
ing either, for everything that the Kan
20 hao f,,rv al hi 20 y a .
paid. and everything has been done on
a big scale. depending on the bounty
of nature"
But now. there is new spirit In the
air The Kansas farm has been a
ranch; hereafter it will be more of an
experiment station. Simple agriculture
Is going to give way to agronomy. No
more OF the hurryup rude and make
shift methods They have all learned
the theory OF specialization, and. what
is more, have tested and proved 1t.
They know now that range cattle won't
fetch them as big a credit at the
creamery as the dairy breeds, and that
even for beef the pure-bred raises the
price Of the herd. They know that
Percheron and Clydesdale and Morgan
horses bring several times as much in
Kansas City as the plains pony. They
have learned how to select corn seed
for uniformity, and test 1t for fertility
before planting, because 1t Increases
the yield. They have taken lessons
from the railroads and steel mills and
department stores in the value OF sys-
tenn and scientific economies. They
have begun to make business of their
business, and it is going to develop
wealth that they have never dreamed
of.
Slack farming and pinching and
| ing out of fashion. 1t has been the
habit in Kansas in the past to seon at
the "checkerboard farms" of New YORK
and New England. When the midland
counties of Kansas are plated like the
sidehiIls of Samsoun and Kerasunde,
Kansas will be incalculably richer than
she is now. The gospel of small acres
and higher cultivation has taken hold
upon them like an Infection. They
have all been facing this proposition
for a long time. It's no news to them.
The simple truth is they have been
lazy.
But see how prompt the Kansan ia
to act when action is necessary. Five
years agoLyes, even less than that-a
hundred manure spreaders probably
could not have been found in the state,
and a man who knows it thoroughly
told me he had actually seen people
move a barn rather than to draw away
a pile of manure. The records OF the
International Harvester company show
that about 1900 manure spreading ma
chimes are being distributed in the
state this year by that corporation
alone, and there are a number of other
concerns which manufacture and sell
similar contrivanceS-
"You may put 1t down for fact,
an old Kansan said, that the best
real farming in this state has been
done by poor Swedes and Russians
and Germans. They come from
countries where they have to farm or
go hungry. and if they have the
sense not to pattern after the Aneri-
can and saddle the soil with all the
work. they are getting rich They
kansas and you'll find these people
tilling the soil as it should be titled,
because that's the only way they
know; and you'n find the American,
or a good many OF them, sitting on
the barrel down at the grocery store,
telling how it ought to pc done"
understand then the full signifi-
canoe of what Prof. Carruth, of the
State university, said in an address
not long ago:
1.-The men to help us carry out the
redemption of Kansas are in Europe
The boom ended ten years ago. 1t
seems to me that the time has come
for Kansas once more to make an
intelligent effort to encourage immi-
grafton to the state. Just as we hunt
for the grasses and the trees and the
live stock best adapted for our condi-
TONS so I would hunt for the right
breed and sort of men. 1 would fol-
low the issOthermal and isohyetal
lines across the ocean and look for
farmers in Germany and Poland and
Russia, who live there in conditions
nearly like ours, and then 1 would
show them, If possible. the advantages
of our state and win them, if possible,
for citizens. A mature human be-
ing is said to be worth $4,000 to the
state 1 should think that a good
German or Russian farmer would be
worth two or three times that to the
state of Kansas.