The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-05-15
Sixth District Ne,Us Notes
Items and "reminiscences by An Old Timer With His
Ear to the Grass Roots.

From there he went to Colorado. and
for several years acted as claim agent
for the. Union Pacific. Roscoe didn't
win the county seat and the town
died, and today the townsite is being
farmed.
/, Eugene Worcester, who founded the
Thomas County Cat, printed in Colby.
in 1885, is now foreman of the Des
Moines Iowa, Capital, His paper was
one of the best known journals in the
pioneer days of northwest Kansas.
Those now living in the county, and
others who moved away, will remem-
Der his paper, for portion of the
head of it was q picture of good4
sized cat. The writer we'll remembers
the Thomas County Cat, and on one of
his early visits there he found the Of
flee doing business in a sod house 1t
was in boom days, when the white
covered prairie Schooners were more
numerous on the streets than any 9TH
er vehicle, anC years before the auto
made its appearance. And in those
times much of the sales of business
men were made to the immigrants
who were coming in in caravans to
homestead lands. A great contrast
times. Now Colby has two newspa-
pers doing business in modern brick
offices, the main business street is
built up almost solidly with brick and
cement. with two lines of railroads,
and has a population of about 500.
1t is the home of ex-Congressman
John r. Connolly, the second Demo-
crat who has served the district.
In a letter from Atwood the writer
has the following to say of Rawlins
county: The land men are about out
of business for the reason we are un-
able to get lands listed for sale. Those
who own lands in the county either re-
fuse to put price on them, or expect
to occupS>it themselves sooner or later
Good smooth wheat lands which in
1905 sold for $500 quarter section is
now worth $4,000. Creek lands worth
$40 per acre that year are now worth
800 an acre. We still have on hand
between 80 and 40 per cent of our last
years wheat crop, due in a mea to
the scarcity of grain cars. The pro-
spect for another big crop this year is
fine, while the acreage is about IS per
cent less than last year. There will be
large acreage of corn planted, on
account of changing the ground. So
much of it has been planted to wheat
year after year until it is necessary to
either summer fallow or plant corn.
BY planting corn and tending it about
the same result is obtained as if the
same ground was summer fallowed,
and the farmer runs the risk of getting
a crop of corn. The stalks in the win
ter and spring prevent the drifting of
the SOIL"
The wheat prospects are fine, cor
respondents report, in the counties of
Graham, Sheridan. Rocks, Thomas.
Rawlins, Cheyenne, Decatur and Ire
go; in fact, all the counties in the
Sixth district. In some of them the
crop is looking better than last year.
and i'm others it is two or three weeks
later. It all looks fine. and moisture
iG Nil In
age has been reduced IS per cent.
This loss will be met by larger corn
acreage. Indications at this time are
that northwest Kansas will witness
another big crop year. Lands are in
creasing in valuey and in some of the
counties the real estate people report
a scarcity of farms for sale because
of advanced prices. and many owners
will occupy and farm their lands
sooner or later. The Sixth district has
a fine outlook of harvesting another
bumper wheat, crop.
y. P. Johnson. of Kirwin,s Is a can
didate for legislative honors of Phil
lips county for the Republican pfi-
mary nomination.
Smith county women are not afraid
to do farm labor, as the following
item from the Smith Center Journal
goes TO prove: Miss Helen Howe
demonstrated to the large number of
interested farmers that a girl can run
a tractor as well as a man. She han
died the pillow rig just like a veteran.
1t was pretty difficult to think that
if women unused to farm machinery
as a class could handle the rig as she
did. that there was much chance OF a
man not being able TO get service out
Of one of them"
Sa,,e of tba =Sixt17 .7istyic+ na1ers