The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-07-02
One Hundred Thousand Men
Are Armed for Fray.
Machines Now Down Wheat All
Over the State.
HUM OF COUNTLESS BINDERS
Symphony Is Music to Ears OF
Warning Nations.
Efficiency Methods Are Prac-
ticed on Farms This Year.

Stretched from the mouth of the
Kaw to the western line of Cheyenne,
from Cherokee to Colorado and from
Oklahoma to Jewell, 100000 men or
more are today fighting Kansas
greatest battle for democracy. The
hum of countless binders, intermin-
gled with that of thousands of head
ers, is answering the worlds cry for
bread. The wheat harvest is in fun
swing
Cutting of the 1917 crop in the
northern two-thirds of Kansas began
the latter part of last week when
here and there, in scattered fields, the
machines began to eat their way inlu
the blocks of yellow grain. Running
by moonlight and not stopping for
Sunday the harvesters steadily in
creased. Today there isn't a county
in Kansas not contributing to the as-
ricultural symphony.
In a few of the southern tiers of
counties the harvest is nearly over.
the crop ripening earlier than in the
northern two-thirds of the state. To-
morrow night will see a swath a coun-
ty wide, stretching from Cherokee TO
Morton, in stubble and dotted with
shocks or stacks. July 4. Independ-
ence day, will see the Kansas cutting.
with the possible exception of a few
northern counties, practically COM
plete.
| Grain Ripe Along Kaw.
Harvesting in the Kaw valley where
| the acreage is larger and of more inn
portance this year than usual, the
reapers began their work in the ma
| jority of the fields today. Some start
ed Sunday. The grain is dead ripe.
| The berries are plump and will test
| high. The preliminary report of J. c.
Mohler, secretary of agriculture.
places the Shawnee county yield at
l,a1ey "
county, will. according to the same
Authority. produce $4,000.
Sumner, where the cutting is prac-
tically completed. is the banner one
of the state. Its official forecast calls
for yield of 2,951.00 bushels.
The harvest this year has SEEM
ingly been watched over by special
providence. The weather has been
ideal. Rain has not clogged the big
bull wheels of the reapers with mud
and nothing else has happened to de-
lay cutting. In most of the territory
the farmers have been fortunate
enough to obtain adequate help. Lit
tie trouble is being experienced with
l. w. w. agitetors. The long arm OF
| the law, in view of the food crlsi., is
| looking out for that. The fields are
being watched closely to avoid incen-
diary destruction.
This years harvest is also differ
ent to the ones of previous wears in
c1ent machinery. For the first time,
the number of headers in Kansas
fields are today possibly as great as
the number of binders. The stem is
short-that is one reason. Another
c--use is the effort of the growers to
get their grain in shock or stack as
soon as possible and the headers will
handle a greater acreage daily than
will binders.
Stacking More Wheat.
With their eyes still more for eff
cheney, the growers are stacking more
of their crop this year than usual.
That harvested by the headers will OF
course go into the stack at once. The
bundles kicked from the binders are
for the most part being placed in the
shock for a few days only, Just long
enough to "air" and let the atmos-
phere absorb any moisture of unma-
turity in the stem. In a few days II
will also be in the stack
, Threshing will be under way in the
earlier wheat sections sometime this
week. The work will proceed to the
northward with about the same rapid
fty as the harvest A few short weeks
more and the Kansas crop of 2,OOO.-
900 bushels or more will be in the bin.
Some of it will be on its way to the
mills
The first oat cutting of any conse-
quence began in southern Kansas to-
day. AS usual, this crop-it amounts
to 100000 bushels in Kansas this
, year-will be ready for the binder as
soon as the wheat harvest in the same
| tor iG FA1l cd