The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-06-28
Modern Folks Know Nothing of
Hot Winds in Kansas.
Hot Winds Of Those We're Not
One Day Affairs.
ROCK WORN SMOOTH.
Watchers Sat on 1t Nightly and
Watched for Rain.
Dry Earth Cracked and Crops
Burned Up.

Plainville Kan, June 2S.-Harvest Is
in full swing this week in all the Kan
sas grain belt, though this years har-
vest is rather dreary. 1t is the first
short crop in IA years. In many a
stretch of western prairie, the wheat
will be turned under this year, for it
viii not pay to harvest it. In Other
places west of Salina, the yield will
be little better than five bushels to the
acre, yet this will pay expenses, and
some over. Patches here and there
where dry farming principles have beel
followed, will yield Is to % bushels.
This creates a ripple in the tircsOme
monotony of the Kansas farmers howl
ing fight along the creased roads OF
prosperity. Naturally, it is not much
TO his liking Not quite so many car
loads of autos win be hauled west into
the prairies this year. Only eight inches
of rainfall is the record at Plainville
the past year, and little better than
half of that, in the counties to the
westward. Disguntled men are quite
occasional, of course. and many 4
crouch is carried around.
Old Timers Smile.
Old timers indulge in a few disdain-
full smiles. concerning the season and
the current comments thereon. Indeed
this "off'' year induces in the older
men a reminiscent mood, and stories Of
the hardships Of the early days are
called to mind.
Said gray haired pioneer OF the
plains the other day:
"Ive seen it-say, I've seen it when
the very air was hot enough to burn
the throttle out of you! And the sky
for weeks, yes, months, was as bare
as O. bald head not a cloud to greet the
weary eye, or cheer the heart with a
lingering hope. The ground. baked and
caked, was as hard as a piece of pot
terry, and cracked and scanned and
split open. till you could drop a horse
down in the deep assures, and it would
be seen no morei
Hot winds? Don't tell me that you
know anything about them! For days
on end they used to blow such a burn
ing blistering breath that there was
nothing left for man or beast to do but
hide.
Yes. sir. it has happened, not once
nor twice in days gone by, that We just
had to look on, helpless, while the siz-
zling blasts from Oklahoma and Ari-
zona just curled and cooked our fields
of corn, as fine corn too, as mortal eye
ever saw, and ali done for in two or
three hours.
sat Up to Look for Rain.
ION my homestead near here, we
used to go out on the high bluffs in the
hot evenings, and sit there hours,
watching the sky for any show OF rain.
You can see the rock there where we
sat. worn by many a long waiting. And
when we got sleepy, we would turn
in to the shack, or stretch ourselves on
the bluff for the night. risking any
rattlesnake that might want to snoop
around.
" No rain tonight was the last word.
rs we cast a final look at the night
sky
In those days it took men to stay By
It. NO wabbly legs Of spineless gentry
lived in western Kansas those days For
they either shrank away quick from the
sight of the fiery plains, or else they
died there.
stayed? Well. reckon we did.
Some got away, of course But we
didn't, not because we couldn't either,
mind thati We just stayed because we
liked it. Factl Maybe you think it
strange. but there's nothing strange
about It, if you only knew the situation.
And every fool that stayed. has no kick
coming uowl
How Values Rise.
west here. in the next county I saw