OBSERVATIONS ON EASTERN FARMERS AND EASTERN FAIRS. 



13 



KANSAS. 



The State Board of Agriculture of Kansas does not hold a State 

 Fair. Years ago it did, but finally the members resolved that it was 

 no part of their legitimate work and they abandoned the fairs to 

 private enterprise and devoted their efforts to the collection and 

 distribution of farm and live stock and other industrial statistics, and 

 to the compilation and distribution of literature directed mainly toward 

 the question of how to farm in Kansas in order to make Kansas 

 farming profitable. The Society had done much to promote immigra- 

 tion to Kansas, but when it noticed that people were going out of the 

 back door of the State faster than they were coming in at the front 

 door that Kansas farmers were sacrificing their holdings and leaving 

 the State the Agricultural Society set to work to ascertain the cause 

 and apply the remedy. They found the cause to be lack of an intelli- 

 gent understanding of Kansas conditions and consequent inefficient 

 methods of farming. The remedy lay in the work of enlightening the 

 farmers regarding local conditions and in encouraging them to adopt 

 methods and crops in harmony therewith. This was a great work, 

 but it was undertaken on intelligent and energetic lines, and the result 

 has brought about a revolution in the stability, development, and 

 prosperity of that once bleeding State. It is in this work that F. D. 

 Coburn, the secretary of the Kansas State Agricultural Society, has 

 made himself famous throughout the country, and it is by reason of 

 the thoroughness of the Kansas statistical department, presided over 

 by J. C. Mohler, Mr. Coburn 's able assistant, that their figures are 

 regarded as the most complete and reliable of any issued by State 

 authority. 



Their State appropriation covers simply salaries, traveling expenses, 

 printing, and postage, the latter item amounting to no small sum. 

 Their method of collecting statistics, while very thorough, is very 

 simple. Under the law the county or local assessors are required to 

 obtain answers from each individual assessed to questions compre- 

 hending all the - information the Agricultural Department desires. 

 These questions are answered on the 1st of March, when 'the crops 

 are mostly in the ground, and when the farmer can tell how many acres 

 he has or will have in wheat, in oats, in corn, in rye, in fruit, in 

 vegetables, or in any other product. He can tell then just exactly the 

 amount of his several crops the year before, and he can tell just how 

 much stock he has, the number of each kind, and the breed of each. 

 The manfacturer also can give the number of his employes, the amount 

 of his output, and the amount paid in salaries. The questions compre- 

 hend everything calculated to reveal the industrial conditions of the 

 State. The acreage of each product being known, it is easy during 



