KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 47 



while he failed to establish his works in time to use all his cane and make a 

 financial success, he has accomplished enough to prove that the climate and 

 soil of western Kansas are specially adapted to the raising and ripening of 

 cane. This cane can be successfully raised in the dryest season, and no crop 

 is more certain anywhere. An acre converted into sugar and syrups is esti- 

 mated to yield from $75 to $100, on a fair yield. There are 10,000,000 acres 

 of land west of the ninety-ninth meridian in this State that will produce $50 

 worth of sugar per acre, and in the production of it will support a larger 

 population than is possible with any other Kansas crop. Broom corn is a 

 successful crop in western Kansas, and one that, like sugar cane, encourages 

 home manufactures. With a more thorough system of cultivation than that 

 now practiced, wheat will be successfully raised four seasons out of five. 



The sheep and cattle interests of western Kansas will always be the most 

 important ones, and the success of millet and rice corn, as feeding crops, in 

 that portion of the State, will stimulate the production of a better grade of 

 beef and mutton than has heretofore come from the west. 



With a, diversified system of farming, each farmer producing a little of 

 each of wheat, sugar cane, broom corn, millet, rice corn, vegetables, etc., and 

 as much stock as they can conveniently handle, instead of confining them- 

 selves to one crop, there will be fewer cases of failure to record ; but farmers 

 of Kansas, east and west, must remember one thing, that in order to get the 

 most advantage out of their present rain supply, they must plow deep; they 

 must get below the hard upper crust; they must thoroughly pulverize the 

 soil so that it will act as a mulch, and then they will increase the moisture- 

 storing capacity of their soil, and practically make a great increase in the 

 rainfall, by utilizing it to its fullest extent. 



A good illustration of the value of such a system of fapming, I found 

 recently on the farm of W. H. Gill, of Pawnee county, one of the best cul- 

 tivated farms in Kansas. In June, 1879, Mr. Gill plowed an eighty-acre 

 field of old ground over eight inches deep, afterwards thoroughly fining the 

 soil by frequent harrowing, and by heavy rolling just before seeding to wheat. 

 After seeding, this field got one shower, and another in February following, 

 when the wheat was again rolled. Both showers did not exceed an inch of 

 rainfall, and yet from that field nine bushels per acre were harvested this 

 year. If such a record can be made under such circumstances, it will be 

 easily seen on what a small rainfall a successful crop of wheat can be raised, 

 when cultivated according to Mr. Gill's method. This instance also illus- 

 trates the peculiar properties of this soil for absorbing and holding moisture. 



During the first week in October last, rain fell for three consecutive days, 

 almost without cessation, all over western Kansas, and Mr. Gill informs me 

 that not a drop of that three days' rainfall ran off the surface of his plowed 

 land, but all was received into the soil. 



The irrigating ditch at Garden City, Sequoyah county, illustrates the same 

 principle. While there last week, I saw fields of corn that would be con- 

 sidered fair in this vicinity, that had only been flooded once this season. 



