WILLI STON: semi-arid KANSAS. 211 



land or property. They boasted that they would let the "capital- 

 ists" who owned the land pay for it. It is not an exceptional case. 

 But the dishonest have not been the rule; most of the people have 

 been sincerely honest in their intentions, and have had courage where 

 courage seemed useless. However, there is no question but that all 

 of Kansas has suffered in reputation for the western part. 



The lesson is now learned, the bubble has burst, and because the 

 real truth concerning this country is now known the prospects of 

 western Kansas are beginning to brighten. The exodus began some 

 years ago. It has been stayed now and then, but has been greatly 

 accelerated the past year. In a large part of western Kansas there 

 was an utter drouth from x\ugust, 1893, to the middle of May, 1894, 

 and even the most hopeful at last lost hope. A very frail straw 

 floated on the current of withered expectation in the shape of "rain- 

 making." Many sensible men secretly hoped that there was some- 

 thing in the theory that a little hydrogen gas liberated into the 

 heavens would bring unlimited quantities of water. By a singular 

 irony of fate, however, the very home of the rain-makers has been the 

 driest spot of all Kansas the past year or two. This last resting place 

 for hope is now gone. The cry now is "Irrigation or emigration." 



In all prudence, the subject of irrigation is one demanding consid- 

 eration. There are twenty or more thousand square miles of arable 

 land, with a soil equal to any in the state, capable, as has been abund- 

 antly proven, of producing as good crops as any in the state, that are 

 well worthy of a moderate amount of time and money to demonstrate 

 their possibilities and impossibilities. For twenty years the writer has 

 been familiar with the meteorological and geological conditions of 

 " semi-arid " Kansas, as he has always called it, and as it is now frankly 

 admitted to be, and he has never lost faith that some day the region 

 would offer resources for a prosperous, though limited, population. 



Just where are the limits of profitable non-irrigated land, it is now 

 impossible to say. Even in the best parts of the state there are 

 seasons and times when irrigation would be desirable or even profit- 

 able. As we go further west, the average annual productiveness 

 decreases. Thirty-seven years ago, when the writer first knew 

 Kansas, Manhattan or Junction City was thought to be about on the 

 border of the "(ireat Desert," and the school maps were not yet 

 quite done locating this desert a little further west. At Salina there 

 are few years when irrigation would not be advantageous. In the 

 extreme western part there is not one year in six when irrigation is 

 not required in the production of crops. The need of irrigation is 

 much more extended than its profitableness. That can only be de- 

 termined by its cost in comparison with the average annual increased 



