KANSAS 



3206 



KANSAS 



which permit the growing of almost all tem- 

 perate-region crops, except in the western part, 

 where the rainfall is inadequate. Agriculture 

 is the chief industry, and agriculturally Kan- 

 sas is one of the leading states of the Union. 

 With respect to products, the state divides it- 

 self naturally into three sections of nearly equal 

 size. In the east the crops are fairly general, 

 corn, oats, rye, potatoes, sorghum, hay, flax 

 and fruit nourishing, but the most important 

 of these is corn, of which considerably more 

 than 100,000,000 bushels are produced in the 

 state each year. Among the fruits apples hold 

 first place, bringing the state from $2,000,000 

 to $5,000,000 a year. In the five years from 

 1909 to 1913 the peach crop averaged only 

 315,000 bushels, but in the next year was 

 1,760,000 and in the year following, 2,516,000 

 bushels, worth $1 a bushel. 



The central belt is devoted to wheat, chiefly 

 of the winter variety, and this is the most ex- 

 tensive crop of the state, as regards acreage, 

 amount and value ; from 100,000,000 to 200,000,- 

 000 bushels are harvested each year. West- 

 ward are the arid lands, no less fertile but 

 considerably less productive. Time was when 

 this region was far more thickly populated 

 than at present, for occasional years of abun- 

 dant rainfall encouraged people to settle there 

 and plant crops; but year after year of drought 

 brought great hardship, and to-day compara- 

 tively few crops are grown there save in the 

 stream valleys, where irrigation is practiced. 

 But to the raising of live stock this grass- 

 grown region is well suited, and vast numbers 

 of cattle are sent each year to the slaughtering 

 houses in Kansas City. Dairying, too, is an 

 industry of importance, while sheep, horses, 

 swine and poultry are raised in ever-increasing 

 numbers. 



Over eighty per cent of the area of the state 

 is farm land, and of this over sixty per cent 

 is improved. The farms are, in general, of 

 considerable size, 244 acres being the average, 

 and almost two-thirds of them are operated by 

 their owners. 



Minerals. The mineral resources of Kansas 

 are by no means insignificant, even though 

 the state has no mountains which conceal 

 great veins of the precious metals. Fuels are 

 the most important mineral yields coal and 

 natural gas ranking first, followed by petro- 

 leum. Coal, which is of the bituminous variety 

 and of excellent quality, is mined largely in 

 the southeast, and the total yearly output is 

 about 7,000,000 short tons. Local needs are 



thus well supplied, and a surplus is left for 

 shipment. For a time it seemed that the 

 supply of natural gas was almost unlimited, 

 but the high-water mark was reached in 1909, 

 when the yield was valued at more than $7,- 

 000,000; since then there has been a gradual 

 decrease, and a number of industries have suf- 

 fered from this lessening production. While 

 not one of the chief producers of petroleum, 

 Kansas has an output of two or three million 

 barrels a year. 



Zinc, in the production of which it ranks 

 sixth among the states of the Union; Portland 

 cement; lead, the mining of which is largely 

 incidental to that of zinc; excellent building 

 stone in great quantities; gypsum; salt, of 

 which only three states produce more, and clay 

 and chalk are the other mineral products of 

 importance. But it cannot be said that the 

 mineral output of Kansas is increasing. 



Manufactures. Without timber and without 

 deposits of iron, Kansas is limited in its mate- 

 rials for manufactures, but out of its agricul- 

 tural resources have grown manufacturing 

 industries of great importance. Long one of 

 the very lowest of the states in the value of its 

 manufactures, it had advanced by the second 

 decade of the twentieth century to the four- 

 teenth place, almost entirely as a result of its 

 agricultural growth. The chief of its manu- 

 facturing industries are those connected with 

 slaughtering and meat-packing, which have 

 their center at Kansas City, Kan., and which 

 are excelled in value only by those of Illinois. 

 This industry, with that of flour and grist mill- 

 ing, in which Kansas ranked third among the 

 states, at the Census of 1910, makes up nearly 

 three-fourths of the total manufactured prod- 

 ucts of the state. 



The building and repairing of railroad cars, 

 the extensive manufacture of butter, cheese 

 and condensed milk, the smelting and refining 

 of zinc and the making of glass are other indus- 

 tries of importance. Over half of the manu- 

 factured products of the state are made in 

 Kansas City, but Wichita and Topeka have a 

 growing industrial life. 



Transportation. Its central position has 

 given Kansas a decided advantage in the mat- 

 ter of railroads, for a number of the great 

 trunk lines which connect the east with the 

 west and south pass through it. In the east- 

 ern and central parts these are so well supple- 

 mented with cross lines that the transportation 

 facilities are unusually good, and only in a 

 few localities in the west, where population is 



