Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1918-01-10
MAKES STUDY OF DRoUGHTs
State University Expert Hopes Soon
to Tell When Spell of Dry
Weather is Approaching.

1t probably will be possible to pre-
dict droughts with a fair degree of &C.
curacy within a few years, DR.. Charles
A. Shull of the University of Kansas
believes, after a years work in the
governments new effort to discover
what droughts are made of and how
to lessen their harmfulness. Doctor
Shull has charge of the governments
drought observatory at the University
and is now classifying the daily OBJ
servations for the station for the nine
months ending November 80. In that
time the evaporation was 56.378 inches,
and the rainfall 23.6 inches. The an
nual rainfall in Eastern Kansas is
about thirty-six inches.
The weather bureau is making an
effort to establish at least one such
observatory in each state. Two were
established in Kansas in the fall of
1915. one at the university, the other
at Tribune. The evaporation at Trib-
une has run one to tow inches a month
more than at Lawrence.
eff drought forecasts become prac-
teal they will enable growers to les
sen drought evils by cultivation that
mulches the soil and lessons evapor-
ation," says Doctor Shul1. THE prob
lem is to eliminate evaporation from
the soil and let the moisture be evap-
GRATED through the growing plants.
Kansas gets enough rain to raise
to keep it. Last July when the drought
began the dry winds swept in day
after day from the southwest and they
sucked the ground dry"
*
oil 0n~ra%ar neSd-A Scott S1Inor-
intendent for the Foster Oil Company,
died at Eldorado recently after sew
eral weeks illness. The body was
taken to his old home in Tulsa for
burial.
A Mail Car Burns.-Mail pouches
falling against the stove of the mail
car in the Salina-Beloit branch train
of the Union Pacific caught fire. The
car was destroyed and considerable
mail lost.
Spanked a 4oLYear-OId Woman
"That woman got one good spanking"
said H w. Cook in Justice Wagstaff's
court at Salina when he was fined $19
for spanking with a piece Of pine
board Mrs. Omega Clemens, 40 years
old, a neighbor. She had borrowed
Cooks horse and he said she mistreat-
ed it.
wichita Had Building Boom.-Oi1
did for Wichita in a year what dozen
wheat crops could not have done.
More than million dollars in building
permits were taken out in 1917, &C
cording to the report of the fire mar
shal's office.
Appointed Farm Aaent[Prof. R.
Kenny, an instructor at the State Agri-
cultural College at Manhattan for sew
eral years, has been named as farm
agent for Geary and Riley counties
and will take up his new work at once.
X ~
Bank Shows Its LoyaIty.-At a meet
ing Of stockholders in Atchison it was
decided to change the name of the
German-American State Bank to the
American State Bank
X r y
Gives 153 to Army.-One hundred
and fifty-three students and graduates
of the Lawrence high school are now
in the military service of the govern
ment The Budget, the school paper,
has prepared a list of all now in the
service and presented it to the school.
Woman in Federal serviee.-Miss
Agnes King. for four years head of
the school department of the State
Normal Library, has been called to .
position in the War Department ut
Washington, d. c.. as = catalog and
index expert