The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1941-08-28
prepared bv National Geographic Society.
w .hi-snts.. n q -WNU Service.


| "ROP control measures
are of vital interest IN
~ Kansas, where the corn
crop is ripening and the prob
lem of limiting wheat acreage
is due for discussion in the fall
of this year. Today, from Bos-
ton bankers to Arizona cow
boys, all America eats bread
made of Kansas hard red Win
ter wheat. Each year some
12O, ZOO, 900 bushels are threshed
here, and enough is ground to
make about At loaves for every
human being in the United
States.
Until Mennonites settled in Kan
sas in 1873, little wheat was grown.
From Russia, however, these lmmi,
grants brought new variety-a req
winter grain so hard that millers at
first had trouble grinding it.
Since that time, the best kinds OF
wheat grown here have come
through selection or hybridization,
from Turkey, or from other imports
of Crimean wheat similar to Tur-
keys. Now agents of Soviet Rus
sia's government come here to buy
seed of this improved wheat, TAX
ing it back-after all these years
to the regions it came from.
To Kansas from Asia came white
blossom sweet clover; from Man.
churia the soybean.
In fact, most plants of economic
value in Kansas are from other
lands. This is true of orchards,
vegetable, and flower gardens. Few
plants were introduced accidentally.
The pioneers covered wagon, carry
ing horse feed, may have been the
means of first bringing in bluegrass;
influx of noxious weeds may also be
traced to accident. But the spec
tacular change-in few decades
in Kansas plant life was willfully
achieved after study, selection, and
scientific plant breeding.
Owned by Spain, Then France.
From Spain to Kansas was long
way-in I54l. Yet that year Coro
nado got here, seeking his fablec
Seven Cities of Cibola.
More Spaniards came later, but
they left only faint footprints in the
sands of Kansas time.
After La Sale f1oated down the
Mississippi and claimed its basin fol
Louis XIV, French trappers ranged
all these Midwest streams. From
a trading post, built near present
day Oak Mills village, in one yeal
(1757) they shipped 10000 pelts tt
Paris, via New Orleans. Man.
French trappers married squaws
Charles Curtis of Kansas, forme
Vice President of the United States
was proud of his Indian ancestry
Banded back and forth betweel
Spain and France, this was little
known region even when Napoleol
in 1903 sold the Louisiana Territor,
to the United States. 1t include
most of Kansas, though Spain stil
ruled over what is now the south
west section of the state.
Rightfully, we didn't get title t
all of what is now Kansas till afte
the annexation of Texas, which, as
republic, had owned the southwes
corner of it, the same corner ths
had been first Spanish and the
Mexican.
BY this time a few whites wer
settling in east Kansas. From Mi.
souri, to New Mexico flowed ths
steady, two-way stream of trader!
soldiers, teams, wagons, good
furs, and treasure which was
make the Santa Fe trail one of tn
most romantic and spectacular ca
avan roads in all history.
| Gold seekers, rushing to Califo
MIA after 1949, swarmed across Kal
sas by scores of thousands, alon
with outlaws, swindlers, and roa
agents, breaking still more ne
trails, including the Oregon and i
| branches, the Salt Lake, Mormon
and California.
| News that aroused the natic
broke in Kansas in 1854, over tt
| Kansas-Nebraska bill. This law s.
up the territories named, and sa
that when they were ready to jo
the Union each might say for itsel
by popular vote, whether or not j
citizens should hold slaves.
battle-ground of North and South.
Immediately Kansas became
battle-ground. From the North can
colonists, sent by the New Englar
Emigrant Aid company to vote Fl
free soil" Some carried gun
called "Beecher Bibles" becau
paid for with funds raised by Hem
Ward Beecher.
Southern states raised funds al