The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-11-08
OUR WAR PROFITS
Kansas Is Doing an Enormous
Business With Europe.
Buyers Have Turned to This
State for Mules.
HORSE SURPLUS ALL SOLD
Total Sales for the First Year
of HOStiIities
Are Estimated at Between S.
and 80 Millions.

kansas is slowly but surely wrest-
ing from Missouri some of the honors
in the breeding of mules, according to
Stockmen, who have visited J. H. Mer-
Ger, state live stock sanitary commits
sloner and ]. c. Mohler, secretary of
the state board of agriculture. The
fact that Kansas jack, Kansas Chief,
owned by H. T. Hineman, of Lane
county, won the senior championship
and the grand championship at the
Panama Pacific Exposition in San
Francisco is pointed to evidence.
Another evidence of the growth of
the industry in the state, it is asserted,
is the number of buyers who have
visited it recently in an attempt to OBJ
tain mules for use in the armies of the
helligerent European nations. One
thousand mules are being assembled
now in Chase county for shipment to
Europe where they will be used to
draw heavy pieces of artillery and as
pack animals, for which purpose they
are said to be superior to horses. Sew
eral carloads also have been shipped
recently from Brown and Doniphan
counties. Norton county and the
northwestern part of the state also
Buyers from st. Louis, Chicago and
Kansas City firms have been numer-
Gus in the markets of Wichita, FIT.
Scott and other places in the south
eastern part of the state, it is said
They Turn to Mules.
mules now is comparable only to that
during the Boer war and that the de-
mand is of recent growth, the avail
able supply of cavalry and artillery
horses in the state having been bought
up very closely and that as a result
the buyers have turned to the pur-
chase of mules. Specifications, in the
main, provide for mules between the
ages of 3 and 10 years that are sound
and in normal condition and measure
from 10 II hands up.
For a number of years Kansas has
been buying high-priced breeding
stock from Missouri it being asserted
that the best of the jacks sold in Mis-
souri, in the last few years have come
to Kansas.
I'VE had just begun to believe that
we had no market for our animals
when this new demand arose." said
one extensive breeder. THE depres
sion in the southern cotton market
caused the demand among the plant
ers, who have been among our chief
customers, to drop almost to nothing
The war demand, however, has more |
than counterbalanced the loss of the |
southern sales"
Other War Profits.
1t has been pointed out also that |
the profit from the sale of mules and
horses is but a small part of the |
profit Kansas has derived because of |
the war. State experts have esti- |
mated that the net gain to Kansans in |
the first twelve months OF the war |
through direct increases in market |
prices of their products. because of |
war conditions, is between IS million |
and 90 million dollars. Through the |
sale of horses and mules alone, for |
use in the armies of Europe, it has |
been said that Kansas stock raisers |
have enjoyed a profit of ten million |
dollars Cattle and dressed meats |
brought the Kansas producers another |
ten millions, it is said, while lead and |
zinc brought five millions more, with |
petroleum and it's products being re- |
sponsible for another five millions. /
The crops of the state, including the |
sale of walnut lumber. have been re-
sponsible for the remainder of the |
profits, it is pointed out.