medium and soft, white and otherwise, was less 

 than 10,000 acres. For ten years ending with 

 1901 the average of winter wheat alone has 

 been 4,436,435 acres, and the yield per year, 

 counting the good with the bad, was more than 

 49,450,000 bushels, the 1901 area being 5,248,547 

 acres. The largest area previously sown to win- 

 ter wheat was 4,909,972 acres, from which the 

 crop of 1893 was harvested. 



Kansas is virtually the only portion of America 

 producing the famous hard red wheat in con- 

 siderable quantities, in which, as in many other 

 things, the state is unique. The seed of this 

 wheat was introduced about 25 years ago, being 

 brought hither by Mennonite immigrants from 

 Southern Russia, near the Black Sea, who, 

 apparently, understood much better than Ameri- 

 cans its hardy productiveness and real value. 

 For years following its introduction it was dis- 

 paraged by American millers and grain buyers, 

 who claimed that its flinty character made it 

 so difficult to grind as to materially lessen its 

 market value. The farmers, however, persevered 

 in sowing it; the production steadily increased, 

 and finally after much experimentation millers 

 were successful in economically reducing it to 

 flour now famous in the world's most exacting 

 markets as superior to nearly all others wherever 

 made in America, and conceded equal to those 

 made in Hungary from wheats grown in that 

 country and in Bohemia. This is true either for 

 baking alone or for blending with and giving 

 quality to other pretentious makes represented 

 as particularly choice because made from extra 

 fancy grades of spring wheat grown elsewhere. 



These wheats do not continuously retain their 

 peculiar characteristics so well when grown in 

 the extreme eastern and south-eastern counties, 

 showing a tendency to assume more the qualities 

 of soft wheats, and this is true, but to a much 

 less extent, wherever they are grown in Kansas. 

 This fact resulted in tlie importation direct from 

 Russia of a ship's cargo of seed in time for 

 distribution among Kansas farmers for the 1901 

 sowing. The use of this imported seed, intended 



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