The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-10-25
new WHEAT KING
J. N. Fike of Colby Again Gains
Desired Title.
w. j. TrOuSdaIe of Norton Held
Title in 1912.

Kingman, Kan. Oct. 25.-For many
years it was one of the favorite ex-
pressions of F. d. Coburn, secretary
of the Kansas board of agriculture,
kansas wheat makes US famous Out
1t is the corn that makes us rlch-
There was and is good deal OF
truth in this, but still there are lot
of Kansas men who have made for
tunes in wheat Many more are max
ing fortunes in alfalfa, and hundreds
have and are making fortunes every
year out of pigs and cattle.
Kansas has had the most favorable
growing season in many years, wnlcn
coupled with the heavy SHOWS of last
winter gave the field crops unusual
strength and vitality. The government
experts have figured that Kansas
would produce an average of sixteen
bushels an acre on all her wheat lands
this year. That means crop exceed
ing 100000 bushels of hard win
ter wheat alone. The most conserva-
tive crop estimates figure the Kansas
corn crop at not less than O,OOO, 600
bushels and the alfalfa crop at close
to 100000 tons.
w. ]. Trousdale of Norton is given
the crown as the wheat king of KAN
sas for 1912. J. n. Ffke of Colby has
been the wheat king of the state for
the last five years, but Fike suffer ed
some bad luck just before the harvest
began, and Trousdale apparently had
slipped in ahead of the former king.
He had a fine field of wheat until
after the first of June, when the dust
began to blow, and before rains came
more than half the wheat had been
ruined and Fixes total grain output
this year will not reach the $4,000
bushel mark.
Trousdale had 5000 acres of wheat,
but he was more fortunate than Fike,
and the rains came at just the right
time to make the wheat grow.
Trousdale has been growing wheat
for thirty years from 1000 to 1000
acres each season His crop for the
year 1912 will amount to more than
100000 bushels. Some of his fields
threshed as high as 80 bushels per
acre. He is not selling any wheat as
many other Kansas growers are doing.
He has storage room for every bushel
and expects to hold the wheat for 81
a bushel He owns all the land he
farms.
The largest actual land owner in
Reno county, Kansas, is man who
made one fortune, lost it, and has just
completed amassing second and is
willing, if necessary, to get out and
dig another fortune from the Kansas
soils. c. NJ. Bay landed in Reno coun-
ty in 1885, with total capital of a
team and wagon, all the worse for
wear, good health and an abundance
of pluck. He traded the team and
wagon for a quarter section of land,
worked on shares for another man to
help get his crop out, worked as a
farm hand until he had money enough
to buy himself a team and the needed
farm implements, and then went to
work on his own farm.
Bay grew wheat, and in ten years, |
owned over 500 acres of land, had invest
ed $4,000 in stocks, and had over $4,000 in
loans. he quit Farming and went into the |
investment business and in three years |
had lost every cent he ever owned, except |
a timber claim he had taken a year or |
two before and which could not be taken |
from him.
With his family Bay moved from his |
at X inc hao To he 10
old sod house on his claim and started in |
again. He made the new start in 1891 and /
today is worth $4,000 or more. He has !
tive square miles of land, over 5000 acres, |
all in one body. He will have 10000 bus
els of wheat this year.
Jacob Reiss. jr.. of Coldwater, Co |
manche county, came to Kansas nearly |
thirty years ago and has been plodding |
along ever since. making a little money |
every year and lots of money some years
has 1000 acres of wheat. 1t took Just ten |
days to thresh tat wheat and Reiss had |
11.I0 bushels of grain to sell. He owns !
all the land he farms, and his profits !
from the wheat field alone will exceed |
$4,000 this year.
Charles Andreas, once a show owner
himself, later a circus clown, has LOCO |
acres in land in Barton county pur-
chased with the savings of his amusement
work. He has just quit the show bust
ness entirely.
]. l. Lusk of Blaine has just finished |
harvesting 600 bushels of wheat from
his farm of 1-400 acres. and has invested |
some of the money in big forty horse |
power traction engine. He is going to sell |
all his horses except one or two.
Mr.. I.usk landed in Kansas with hardly
more than a dollar. a team and wagon, a
wife and four children. He owns 5000