KANSAS 



snrance that they would gather fruit therefrom. Since 

 then, rapid progress in tree-planting has been made. 



Apple trees do not bear heavy crops every year, but 

 there has not been a total failure any year since the 

 trees commenced bearing, some forty years ago. Peaches 

 bear in some parts of the state every year, the south 

 having few failures. Pears succeed throughout the 

 although some varieties blight in some localities. 



KAULFUSSIA 



855 



1206. Climatoloeical regions of Kansas. 



Plums and cherries are successful throughout the state, 

 if the curculio is destroyed. Grapes bear heavy crops 

 nearly every year. Strawberries yield good crops. 

 Raspberries and blackberries also do well. 



Market-gardening is profitably carried on around 

 Kansas City, Leavenworth, Atchison, Lawrence, To- 

 peka, Ft. Scott, Wichita, and many other towns. Sweet 

 potatoes are at home here and are grown in large quan- 

 tities. They are on the market from early in Septem- 

 ber to March and sometimes in May. Irish potatoes are 

 not a sure crop on the uplands, but immense quantities 

 are grown on the bottom-lands. Hundreds of car-loads 

 are grown and shipped from the Kansas river bottom, 

 between Topeka and Kansas City, every year. 



The uplands are rolling prairies, with a deep, alluvial 

 soil, with enough clay and sand intermixed to make it 

 an ideal soil for fruit-growing. The subsoil is red clay, 

 with some sand. This is underlaid with limestone from 

 one to forty feet below the surface. This limestone is 

 full of seams or cracks which afford a good subdrainage, 

 so that little of the land needs artificial drainage. 

 These lands, as above described, embrace a very large 

 percentage of the entire state. The bottom-lands are 

 wide, ranging from one to ten miles in width. These 

 bottom-lands are composed largely of sand, with enough 

 humus intermixed to make them very productive. 

 They support some of the finest orchards. 



Kansas City is the lowest point in the state, and is 

 about 750 feet above the sea level. It gradually gets 

 higher west, until it is-over 4,000 feet on the western 

 border. The rainfall is of the usual amount on the east- 

 ern border, but gradually decreases as the western 

 boundary is approached. Fred Wellhodse. 



Kansas is, to the eye, practically level. There are no 

 mountains within its boundaries, yet the eastern third 

 is rolling. Some parts are rough, while the west is 

 practically level, yet the state runs steadily up-hill from 

 its eastern border, which is 750 feet above sea level, to 

 the western limit, which is 4,500 feet above sea level. 

 This naturally gives a varying climate. It is like 

 climbing a mountain 3,750 feet high, and passing 

 through the varying atmospheric changes as one goes 

 upward, from a moist, easy-growing climate to a clear, 

 windy, dry elevation 3,750 feet higher. 



In the eastern third of the state (1, Fig. 120G) the 

 apple and pear are at home, and when well grown 

 are excellent. New varieties originating in the state 

 or in the west are taking the place of eastern and im- 

 ported varieties. Orchards and gardens are scattered 

 all over the eastern half, and are very successful. The 

 coinraercial horticulturist finds his early market in 

 Nebraska, Colorado and Iowa; his later market in the 

 cities and towns of Kansas, and a still later market in 

 Texas, when the heat of summer has paralyzed Texan 

 products. Oklahoma and the Indian Territory have for 

 years been good markets for the southern part of 

 Kansas. Many orchardists in the middle west sell every 



apple, good, bud or indifferent, for cash to wagoners 

 who come from the south and west annually in large 

 numbers to carry away the orchard products. Toward the 

 west, cherries, plums and peaches seem more at home. 

 The two former are very prolific, and a success in the 

 central part (2). Peach pits are planted in rows through- 

 out the west for wind-breaks, and such trees bear con- 

 siderable fruit, some of it very tine. Along the Arkan- 

 sas river, where the roots of trees penetrate to water, 

 all fruits do finely, and on irrigated lands back from the 

 bottom-lands, horticulture prospers in all departments. 

 The bluffs along the Missouri river, in the northeastern 

 part of the state, seem peculiarly adapted to the apple, 

 and it is grown there in immense quantities. Here are 

 some of the greatest apple orchards of the world. The 

 total number of apple trees in the state is 11,005,007 ; 

 pears, 398,975; peaches, 5,734,337; plums, 919,527; 

 cherries, 1,666,456. The acreage of vineyards is 6,543; 

 of nurseries, 2,803 ; blackberries, 3,253 ; raspberries, 

 1,504; strawberries, 1,864 (1900). 



Strawberries do well anywhere in the state. Some 

 prominent varieties originated hero. Raspberries are 

 of easy culture. The " Kansas " originated in Lawrence, 

 and has become the mainstay among blackcaps over 

 a wide range. Blackberries are indigenous, and 

 cultivated varieties mainly do well, though some of 

 them rust badly. Raisin grapes are grown in the south 

 by winter covering. Prunes and figs will also grow 

 there. Vegetables of all kinds do well and are of fine 

 quality, the tomato beingespecially at home. Early pota- 

 toes of the Kaw valley are widely known, and millions 

 of bushels are exported yearly. Fertilizers are little 

 used, and the stable manure of the cities is largely 

 dumped on the commons. Only gardeners seem to value 

 it. Melons are of easy growth, and of the finest quality. 

 Sugar-beets have been tried at various points, but on 

 analysis do not often come up to the required standard 

 of saccharine qualities. Indian corn is the great staple, 

 and all the sugar and popping varieties come to the 

 finest maturity in quality. The lack of water in western 

 Kansas (3) is the greatest drawback to agriculture there. 

 William H. Barnes. 



KAEATAS( Brazilian name). Bromeli&cew. Bentham 

 & Hooker refer about 10 West Indian and Brazilian 

 bromeliads to this genus, but Mez, the latest monog- 

 rapher (DC. Monogr. Phaner. 9), refers the species to 

 other genera. Baker retains it. As understood by 

 Bentham & Hooker, Karatas differs from Bromelia 

 chiefly in its dense, capitate flower-clusters, which are 

 sessile in the axils of the upper leaves. The species are 

 cult, the same as Bromelia, Billbergia, and the like. 

 They are little known in this country. Apparently the 

 only common one is K. 8pect4bili8, Ant. {Nldulcirium 

 spectdbile, Moore. Eegelia spectdbilis, Linden. Are- 

 gelia spectdbilis, Mez). It is a stemless, tufted peren- 

 nial, with broadly strap-shaped, spine-edged Ivs., which 

 are green above, gray-banded beneath and red-tipped 

 at the end : fls. numerous, sunk amongst the Ivs., the 

 corolla with bluish lobes. Braz. B.M. 6024. L. H. B. 



KATJLFtSSIA(G.F.Kaul- 



fuss, professor of natural 

 history at Halle). Cowpds- 

 itie. A small, branchy, hardy 

 annual, 6-12 in. high, wit 

 blue or red aster-like fls., 

 on long stems: plant pubes- 

 cent or hispid: Ivs. oblong- 

 spatulate or oblong-lanceo- 

 late, entire or remotely den- 

 ticulate : heads many-fld., 

 radiate, theray fls. pistillate, ITO?. Chaneis heterophylla. 

 the disk-fls. perfect: akene Natuial size, 



obovate and compressed, 



those of the disk with plumose pappus : involucre 

 scales iu two rows. K. amelloides, Nees (Figs. 1207-8), 

 is an excellent annual, of easy culture in any garden 

 soil. Var. atroviolicea, Hort., has dark violet fls. Var. 

 kermeslna, Hort., has violet-red fls. Sow seeds where 



