THE SANTA FE ROUTE. 41 
thickness of the sands and gravels in this region ranges fr om. a few feet 
to 400 feet, the thickness found in a hating in Garden 
West of Gacdag City the traveler is feisty within the on zone 
of the western United States, where there are large areas of public 
lands still available for settlement. On the plains and in the valleys 
the soil is rich, but in many places there is a lack of the water neces- 
sary for irrigation. 
The settlers in the western counties of Kansas have had many vicis- 
situdes, mainly caused by their constant struggle against the semi- 
arid climate. After the terrible drought of 1860 thousands of set- 
tlers left the State. Those following the pioneers who failed in 
western Kansas have attacked their problems of home making with 
no more earnestness but with much greater success, owing to their 
better knowledge of the climate, of the available arid-land crops, 
and of methods of tillage. The dey. and somewhat uncertain climate 
has been the greatest obstacle to permanent settlement on millions 
of acres of unirrigated land not only in western Kansas but in 
adjoining similar regions in Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and South 
akota. The grain sorghums, such as Kafir, millo, and feterita, 
thrive under conditions of aridity and drought where corn is either 
a partial or a total failure. In 1893 the acreage planted to grain 
sorghums in Kansas was reported as well under 100,000 acres; in 
1914 it was over 1,700,000 acres, and the average return per acre 
was several dollars higher than that for corn. In all these States 
the grain sorghums are now rapidly me corn. Stock, how- 
ever, is the principal resource of this region, for the country is gen- 
erally covered with good grass which ae only keeps cattle alive 
but fattens them for market. It is said that under ordinary condi- 
tions each head of stock requires from 5 to 10 acres of grazing land 
and usually more or less feeding during the severe portions of the 
winter. 
river and on the bottom lands and plains “There is no appreciable run-off in the 
north of the river. 
“The sand puese ponstitute an essential 
part of the 
“The oe of the fo floods i in the river 
upon the ground-water level does not ex- | sas Valley are capable of yielding very 
tend one-half mile north or south of the 
channel. 
“A heavy rain contributes more water 
to the underflow than a flood. 
e _ On the sandy bottom lands 60 per cent 
Wea ter plane 
asa perunaisiont contribution. 
“The amount of dissolved solids in the 
underflow grows less with the depth and 
with the distance from the river channel. 
large amounts of water. 
of percolating surface of the well strainers 
can be relied upon to yield more than 0.25 
gallon of water per minute under I-foot 
ead. 
“There is no indication of a decrease in 
the underflow at Garden City in the last 
five years. The city well showed the 
same specific capacity in 1904 that it had 
in 1899.” 
