THE SANTA FE ROUTE. 7 
In 1854 Kansas was organized as a Territory under the Kansas- 
Nebraska act, which left the question of slavery to be settled by vote. 
This question caused several years of bitter contention, in which 
many persons came from far and near to join. The struggle of the 
slavery and antislavery forces finally became a national issue and 
was one of the causes of the Civil War. In 1861 Kansas was ad- 
mitted as a “free State.” It has been settled by a great variety 
of people, some of whom have come in large bodies. After the 
Civil War many soldiers settled in the State, taking advantage of 
the provision that a person who had given military service could 
have his term of service deducted from the five years required for 
homesteading. 
Kansas has considerable resources in oil, coal, cement rock, and 
other minerals, but the principal industry of the State has been 
agriculture, and in this she has taken high rank. Kansas produces 
about one-tenth of our wheat, ranking first in that crop. Nearly 
5,500,000 acres is planted in wheat, and the average annual yield 
from 1900 to 1913 was 75,347,000 bushels, but in 1914 the crop was 
177,200,000 bushels, valued at $168,340,000, or more than ever before. 
The oat crop in that year was 58,960,000 bushels, and the estimated 
total value of farm and live-stock products of Kansas for 1914 was 
$638,000,000, or nearly double the cost of the Panama Canal. The 
average yield of wheat in Kansas for the last 10 years is 14.1 bushels 
to the acre, and the State ranks twenty-sixth in that respect. The 
average yield of wheat for the United States is 14.8 bushels to the 
acre. Indian corn is an important crop in Kansas, the yield in 1913 
being 174,225,000 bushels. ; 
The mineral products of Kansas in 1913 had an aggregate value 
of $27,312,563. Coal ($12,036,292) was the leading item, and Port- - 
land cement (3,291,818 barrels, valued at $3,268,861) ranked second. 
The zine produced was valued at $1,129,856; lead, $213,576; clay 
products, nearly $2,000,000; salt, nearly 2,700,000 barrels, valued at 
$860,000; petroleum, 2,375,029 barrels, valued at $2,248,283. 
On the north side of the river is a wide, low flat, on which is 
built the southern part of Kansas City, Kans. The flat consists of 
sand and gravel deposited by the river and extending to steep 
slopes of limestone on the north. The valley of the Kansas is from 
2 to 3 miles wide, and the stream meanders across its bottom 
in long, swinging bends, skirting the limestone bluff on one side 
for a few miles and then crossing to the other side. Features 
of this sort are common to all large streams that carry sediment 
across a generally flat country, especially to those which vary 
greatly in volume at different times in the year. Kansas River ic 
