26 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. 
In this vicinity and for the next 25 miles to the west there are 
many settlements of thrifty Mennonites, who colonized here in 1874. 
The railways conducted a campaign of advertising in Europe and 
were instrumental in settling large areas of Kansas lands with col- 
onies of Swedish, Welsh, Scotch, English, Germans, and Russians. 
The Mennonites were Germans of a particular creed who on account 
of their thrift and industry had been invited to settle in Russia, 
an invitation which they accepted. Some of their special privileges 
having been withdrawn, however, they emigrated to this country. 
They brought with them many plants and for a long time held their 
lands in community ownership. Each family brought over a bushel 
or more of Crimean wheat for seed, and from this seed was grown 
the first crop of Kansas hard winter wheat. At first this wheat 
seemed to be more difficult to mill and bake than the hard spring 
wheat, and even Kansas millers for some time either declined to 
receive hard winter wheat or paid a lower price for it than for softer 
wheats. In 1890 the prices of soft spring and soft winter wheats 
exceeded that of hard winter wheat by about 10 cents a bushel. In 
July, 1910, for the first time the price of hard winter wheat equaled 
that of the softer wheats. 
About 4 miles west of Newton is an area of sands and gravels 
which fill a broad, moderately deep underground valley in shale, 
excavated by a large stream that long ago flowed across the region 
from the north and finally deposited the gravel and sand. This 
stream was probably an outlet for several rivers of northwestern 
Kansas, the Smoky Hill and probably also Solomon and Saline 
rivers, now branches of Kansas River. The width of the buried 
valley is about 20 miles in the region west of Newton, but a short 
distance south of the railway it merges into the valley of the Arkansas. 
Its western margin is well defined by the steep slopes of the land 
rising toward the northwest, but to the north and northeast are valleys 
since excavated to a lower level. The underground relations of the 
deposit have been explored by well borings, for the large amount of 
water which it yields is of great value, especially as there is but little 
water available in the shales of Permian age in the adjoining lands 
and in the floor under the basin. This resource has been an important 
factor in the development of Newton. When that town needed a 
city supply deep drilling soon demonstrated that little water was to 
be found underground in the city area, even at a great depth. On 
the advice of geologists tests were made in the edge of the buried 
valley a short distance west of the city, with most satisfactory results, 
and now this source yields a large volume of water which is piped 
to tae city. 
