The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1913-08-29
KANSAS NO LONGER
CORN STATE SAYS
CHIEF EXECUTIVE
CITIZENS DECLARE THEIR PROS
PERlTY NO LONGER RESTS
ON ONE CROP.
The STATE IS WELL PROTECTED

I'LL OlHl L ~ WILL ] nU LII LII
siIos, Sorghum Ponds to Be the Key.
note to Meet the Emergencies of a
Drouth in the Future--Live Stock
Water.
TOPEKA, Kan, Aug. 2S.-Kansas
has emerged from sweaty, dusty
with smile and several lessons
well learned. Chief among the prin-
cipals that were demonstrated sufi-
GENTLY plain are:
That western or dry Kansas suffer
ed less loss and inconvenience than
Central or Eastern Kansas because
of the number of ponds in the western
part of the state. When the farmers
of the Central and East were forced
to sell their stock because of lack of
water or to have water hauled to the
farms, the western farmer drove his
stock to the pond.
That sorghums and cane are excel
lent dry weather crops and that with
a silo ready for the preservation of
this forage for winter feeding, farm
er can almost laugh at the rainfall
figures.
That Kansas is no longer corn
state" and that if not an ear of corn
was produced, the state would contin-
ue to live. That heat stricken corn
fodder can be preserved in silos and
made of profit by feeding it to stock
during the winter.
1t is fortunate for Kansas that ag-
ricultural leaders several years ago
began preaching the doctrine of
ponds, sorghums and silos. This
drouth three years ago would have
meant much heavier loss than this
year, as at that time more deuend-
ance was put into ears of corn t. be
sold on the market but since then
farmers have learned the valu. of
home feeding to stock and of the
value of silos.
Kansas was in the center of the
drouth district this year. Parts of
Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Arkan.
sas and Missouri were affected, but
all of Kansas was dry, dryer than it
had been for twenty-five years, &C.
cording to weather bureau figures.
The heat began May 20 and contin-
ued with more or less regularity un.
til August II when rains thata became
general throughout the state brought
relief. For eighty days there was
. less than five inches of rainfall the
lowest amount in any similar period
, ever recorder. The temperature was
not always 100 degrees and no gcner
al heat records were broken except al
night. For thirteen nights, beginning
August 2, the temperature at night
did not go below IS degrees. Not in
twenty-seven years has there been
more than four successive nights In
which the temperature never went be
, low seventy-five. The ordinary sum
mer night temperature in Kansas il
. around IS and 20.
, The most serious phase of the
dry weather was the lack OF water fol
, stock, the personal discomfort Incl
, dent to extreme heat and lack Of
water for domestic use And western
, Kansas suffered even less from the
{ stock water problem than did the cen
, trail part Of the state, or even the
; eastern third.
, For years the state has been en-
, couraging the building of ponds ii
. western Kansas to. store the surplu.
! snow and rain water that comes II
the winter and spring months.
[ The state removes $500 of the as
sessed valuation Of evedy 4O-acre fielt
, that has pond on 1t. Long ago tn,
. western Kansas men realized the ne
cessity for these ponds and bull
!. them, and they buitl more pond,
with the tax exemption.
These ponds were filled with water
last spring and they still have waite,
in them and there has been no short
age of stock water in that section
, Many wells went dry and water hat
to be hauled for domestic purposes.