New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-09-03
Kansas to Look at.

Kansas 10 LOOK AT.
Geographically the state is not un-
lovely, nor yet is it vision of beauty.
IL is vast, rolling prairie, naturally
rather treeless, especially in the west
ern part, and somewhat deficient in
lakes and rivers. II is not a land Of
babbling brooks and shady dells. It's
charm, like that of the endless desert,
is of vastness and distance. And, like
the charm of the desert, it gets into
your blood and the circumscribed
limits of pent-up civilization satisfy
you no longer. IL has some oil and
some coal and does some manufactur-
ing, but its great industries are agri-
culture and cattle raising. The eli
mate, the keynote of the situation lis by
turns blessing and calamity. There
are years when the clouds drop fat
ness and years when, in the words Of
Elijah, THE sky is as brass and the
earth as iron underneath"
The beginning of the trouble was
that for many years the early settlers,
farmers and stock raisers went up
against this climate with the ways
and customs of the East. They farmed
after the manner of the East, and
attempted to raise only those products
that were so easily grown in the homes
of their fathers. They had years of
wetness when things went well, and
there were great tricks to Kansas from
the states further east because of the
stories Of changing climate and in
creasing rainfall. There were fables,
invented by would-be meterologsts
and real estate agents, of greater pre-
cipitation, because of the stirring of
the ground and the planting of for
ests. 1t is one of the curiosities of
human nature how long these delu
sions persisted persisted in spite of
the coming, with relentless irregular
ity, of the lean years of fierce heats
and protracted drouths, accompanied
BY hot winds that wthered all the
vegetation as with the breath of
furnace.
These were the years of hegiras OF
ruined farmers from the burnt out
districts, of increase Of farm mort
cages and much wondering in other
parts of the country as to what was
the matter with Kansas"
4 Stubborn People.
A lesser people would have given up
the fight and settled down to smaller
hopes and a mute resignation to fate.
But Kansas folks were given to look
ing facts in the face and counting the
cost. Long ago they were disillusion-
lied as to the rose water sentimentality
Of an ever benefcent and kindly nat
ure. They realized that nature is as
cruel as she is kind, and is force
sometimes to be followed and obeyed,
to be fought and overcome.
They grew TO know that while climates
change. the variation is too small 70
be perceived in the recorded history
o. man, that what was once was what
would be again, and that the recurring
seasons Of bountiful rainfall and of
dry, thirsty year, were TO be their
portion for all time. The saving grace
of the situation was the intelligence
and courage of the people. They had
always been a reading and thinking
folk, and not only the public schools,
but the higher forms of education,
were their ideals of the needs of de-
mocracy. To-day they proportionate-
ly send more students to colleges and
than any other state in
the Union. So they were ready 20
listen 20 the voice OF the man from
the Department OF agriculture, and
from the State Agricultural College,
who offered them a solution Of their
difficulties.
Adaptation.
Dry farming was one possibility, be-
cause its methods conserve the moist
ure in the soil for the use OF the
plants. instead Of allowing il TO De lost