Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1916-09-23
TREGo HAS GOLD AT LAST
The county's Yield Averaged Twenty
Five Bushels to the Acre, and the
Community is Drunk With
Prosperity


Wa-Keeney, Kans., Sept 17.-Trego
County turned out well today for the
closing day of the fair. A large num-
Der were interested in the aeroplane
fight. a few grew excited over which
of the three horses would come in
last in the main race, but practically
all found common interest in yield to
/ the acre and 4-cyIinder cars vs..
6-cylinder cars, for Trego County is
unprecedently drunk with prosperity.
One might never suspect it from
the train window. The lean. grass
hopper riddled cornstalks and the
vast brown grazing acres still are
there. but eff on the far horizon
where the straw piles seem to gather
a thick as hay cocks in meadow
one begins 10 get some idea Of the
bounty which has sent this county
Keeling with money, for the county
snaps its fingers over the corn crop
and forage and hay outlook and
counts three years Of profit in wheat.
Some cf those brown piles on the
horizon are piles of wheat. for Uhous-
andS Of bushels is piled ont on the
ground in this county, whitening in
the sun. While the freight car short
aye gets worse.
It is hard 10 speak with conserva-
tism of this situation after spending
q Gay AZ tie Treeo County Fair Men
in oveTails SPEAK OF haying 5000. SO,
0Qo, $4,000 and even $4,000 worth OF
Wheat stifl in the bin or on the
ground. They speak of the average
yield Of the county being TWENTY-FIVE
bushels 10 the acre until you get the
idea that there is some gigantic con
spiracy to put over that rather amaz-
ing figure, but if 50 the bankers and
the farmers are all cons oirators, for
ali agree.
The bankers complain that no one
wants to borrow their money Some
say So per cent Of their deposits are
unlent. The merchants say the
farmers all want cash discounts.
The leading motor car agency is sew
enty cars behind orders There are
497 licensed motor cars in the
sparsely settled county, and the num-
Der increases about dozen day.
are said to own motor cars.
That is what Trego County s wheat
yield has done for it. In similar
degree prosperity extends to the
counties surrounding it in the
Great American Desert"
There are no official figures on the
yield. The millers of this county
agree that it is about , mil
lion bushels of wheat. Not more
than fourth of it has been market
ed. The three elevators of this town
can only get about one car day and
the farmers, who would take advan-
tage of the local price of 81 40 a bus
hel, have to run their chances of get
ting load in that car. Often the
wheat wagons line up. hundred in
a row, and take numbers just as the
next" of barber shop. Often the
farmer has to unhitch his team and
wait for another day to get space for
his grain.
Two days ago buyer in this city
began pouring wheat on the ground
beside the railroad tracks. Three
thousand bushels reposed in golden
rick tonight. At Buffalo Park, it is
said, sixteen thousand bushels are
piled out in this way and many other
similar cases are mentioned.
The farmers have been driven to
unusual plans TO take care of the
wheat. In not few cases motor
cars have been run out into the open
and garages have been boarded up
and REINFORCED and filed. Spare
bed rooms have been made into gran
aries. In some homes, the family
sleeps on top of pile of wheat
This county and the ones adjoining
are full of stories of the man who
staked his last dollar in 1918, and won
wealth in his wheat crops in 1914,
1915 and 1916. There are many
stories of paying for the land in one
year. G. c. Yeuter, former wheat
raiser of Ogallah. got a rental of sI2. 25
an acre off his ranch as his third of
the wheat put in by a tenant. c. F.
Folkers grew AZ 80 bushels of wheat
10 the acre by official measurement
under the direction of the state
agriculture college.
Some years ago gold was found in
the shale deposits of Trego County.
Kansas City investors had occasion
| TO know how little. Now it has been