N 



farmers concentrated on the "right type." He took a 

 practical step to prove his point. Around 1909 he im- 

 ported seeds of the Burley variety from Kentucky, These 

 were distributed among all farmers in the area wiUing 

 to accept them— about a hundred in all— and Colonel 

 Sharp offered a $10 prize for the best example grown 

 from the Kentucky seed. The resultant crops convinced 

 him and his farmer friends that fine Burley could be as 

 successfully grown in Kansas as in Kentucky. 



Once again hard-working men were wilfing to con- 

 tinue in a difficult agriculture. But a succession of 

 droughts seriously affected all farming. Tobacco was a 

 major casualty. Acreage was shortly reduced to 201 

 acres. At that time tobacco from those fields was valued 

 at $125 an acre. That production was, however, prac- 

 tically the end of its cultivation in the area around 

 Coffeyville. 



ew efforts - and. old results 



In 1912 a new Burley area was opened in the Weston 

 district of Missouri. It was, and remained, successful. 

 Nearby Kansas farmers showed only the mildest interest 

 in this venture of their neighbors. The better part of two 

 decades passed before they took any active part in 

 tobacco production. 



Then, along the northeastern border of Kansas, fields 

 of tobacco began to appear. Only 200 acres were sown to 

 this crop by 1932. By 1939 the acreage had tripled and 



