The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-11-19
KANSAS AT FRONT
Green Wheat Fields Indicate
Work of the Farmer.
Every Indication That State
Has Broken Records.
RIGHT UP TO HIS EXPECTATIONS
Secretary Houston Asked for
100000 Acres to Seed.
Jayhawker Has Fulfilled His
Duty to the Nation.

America expects the Kansas farm
er to seed 10000, 900 acres to wheat
this fall"
Such was the laconic assertion of
DR.. David II. Houston, secretary of
agriculture, conveyed to farmers and
wheat growers of Kansas during the
closing weeks Of the summer of 1911
Two months and more have passed,
and what has Kansas done?
Kansas has taken the first line
.rencnes in the uriYe for more wheat.
The state has obtained its detectives.
Thousands of acres of new land were
broken during August and September
in preparatiol for the greatest wheat
Drive in the history of the state and
the history of the nation.
When planting time arrived, there
stretched out over the state a seed
bed prepared with such care as had
never before been exercised. Imagine
an area greater than the total land
surface of massachusetts,, Connecti-
cut, and Delaware combined, plowed
and narrowed and made ready to re-
ceive the seed. That was what Kan
sas did in the fall of 1916, and there
is every indication that the record of
g,5S7,2JG acres seeded to wheat at
tnat time was passed this fall under
the urgent requests for more wheat.
Every Secdcr at Work.
single horse drill to the big tractor,
Vas worked overtime in the great eff
fort to plant a record acreage to
Wheat With ideal weather prevail
ing, after a general rainfall, cOndi-
tIons were right" for the final phase
OF the planting campaign. From dawn
until dusk hundreds of teams and
scores of slowly moving tractors were
to be seen in the fields of Kansas, put
ting the state over the top" in the
Wheat drive. Millions of bushels of
sect wheat entrusted to nature to
brinG forth some ten-fold, some TWEEN
ty-fuld and some thirty-fold.
To say that a single wheat grower
planted thousands of acres to this
cereal this fall is to explain how
Kansas reached its objective in the
campaign for 100000 acres of
wheat From many parts of the state
there have come to the office of the
secre tary of the state board of agri-
culture here letters from wheat grow
rs telling of individual efforts in the
move ment for more wheat. Out in
Ellsworth county. for instance, in the
wheat belt, Is the Sherman ranch,
$4,000 acres under the control of one
man, 1000 of which are under plow
Seven thousand acres of wheat were
To be put in his fall Nine tractors
which plowed. disced and narrowed
the ground were worked night and
Gay to perform the task. In addition
many teams of mules were used in
the undertaking. Three hundred
farm hands employed on the ranch
helped to make the movement a sue
cess.
Today Kansas probably has broken
ITS own record of acreage sown to
wheat Whatever the acreage, for ex-
act figures will not be available until
the close of the year, the Kansas
farmer has fulfilled his duty to the
nation. If the season is favorable.
the acreage is plenty large; if the
season is adverse, perhaps too much
land has been devoted to this great
cereal
Zen million acres Of wheat is prac-
tcaIIy reality; two hundred mil
non bushels Of wheat is the posi-