Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1911-09-14
nIR EIRsr EVE DECADES.

What a brief spell 1t is, as the ages
of states and nations go, since the
heralds OF time proclaimed our coun-
try's authority over the region OF
which Kansas is now a part! MOST
OF this area was bought from France
a century ago at 2-S cents per
acre, or is million dollars. There
were those at the time who ridiculed
the purchase as waste OF public
funds. In truth, for that day, 10
million dollars was a large expendi-
ture; but If charged to them the Kan
sas hens alone, in 1910, could easily
have paid the bill.
AT the time of this international
land deal the region was unexplored
and uncomprehended, and OF Kansas
no man had dreamt. In 1908 was
celebrated the centennial anniversary
of the transfer of the unmeasured
wilds of Louisiana province to the
United States. But 1t Is within only
the latter half of that hundred years
that a large part Of the purchase mas
been transferred as II by magic into
the most profitable productive agri-
cultural domain in the world, and
of this the grassy quadrangle called
Kansas is the favored commonwealth.
In her five decades of statehood
Kansas history has been unique and
attention compelling from the ma
ton and the whole world. From her
leagues Of fertile loans the states
present wealth has come, and her
future welfare and prosperity hinge
on an enlightened husbandry 10
what purpose her husbandmen al
ready have labored is strikingly In
dictated by statistics. Fifty years
ago their farming had hardly begun;
Kansas wheat crop In the year OF
her admission to the union was 1857
379 bushels, and the corn ,246,-
TIT bushels. This year Reno county
raised Is times more wheat than the
whole state had in her first year,
and in one season Jewell yielded
more than 10 million bushels OF
corn. In less than half century
Kansas has become the country s
most important producer of wheat
OF a quality the world envies In
the 10 years ending with 1903, her
wheat crops averaged annually over
n million bushels, or nearly mil
lion bushels per year more than those
of Minnesota, her closest competitor.
In 1901, when the Kansas wheat
harvest amounted to nearly 100 mil
lion bushels, she attained an altl-
tude In total yield no other state
ever reached.
As corn-grower Kansas marches
with the leaders, and corn Is the
premier wealth-bringing product OF
her soil. Alfalfa, introduced a score
of years since, was the forerunner
of an incredible agricultural advance
ment, and in its growing the state
leads all.
Fifty years ago her prairies were
practically untouched by the plow-
share; today no state is her equal
in the combination of wheat, corn
and alfalfa, the trinity in which
Kansa~' agricultural prosperity
abides. With a third of her area
in cultivation the farm products OF
1910 we're worth SO5 million dol
lars and the livestock on hand was
valued at approximately 235 million
dollars Not only in her soil and
its productions is Kansas rich, but
treasures underground, representing
wealth inestimable, are hers.
Yet, with all these industrially
Kansas is but in her infancy and
her resources scarcely more than
touched by the fingerItips of devel-
opment; her people have been en-
crossed in subduing the wilderness
planting the seeds of an advanced
civilization, erecting their affairs and
learning the demands OF their new
environment. In the light OF heI
so years experience and experiment
the succeeding half-century should
encompass an upgrowth and a pros
perity such as no seer can foretell
F. d. Coburn in Mail and Breeze
I have seen the smoke of battle;
have seen men die in heaps.
have watehed the skulking lions