when it is remembered that twenty years ago Kansas was best known as 

 a land of abandoned homesteads, droughts, and hot winds. To-day, it is 

 not uncommon to see farmers bringing their produce to the market in motor- 

 cars. This change in conditions is chiefly due to the rise in land values. 

 At the time 1 have mentioned land could be bought at 75 cents per acre ; 

 now it can readily be sold at $5, $10, and $20 per acre. 



Another reason is undoubtedly that better methods of tillage have 

 been adopted, largely due to the teaching of the Agricultural College and 

 the influence of the Experiment Stations. Possibly the most striking 

 thing is the widespread cultivation of alfalfa (lucerne). You see it every- 

 where — vast fields of vivid green, patches in gardens, clumps by the road- 

 side. It is not too much to say that the recent agricultural transformation 

 of Kansas is mainly due to the culture of lucerne". Cattle are pastured 

 on it, and hogs are turned loose to graze at will. Corn (maize), of course, 

 is a great crop also, and does excellently on the deep black loam. It is 

 generally planted with a listing plough.* The tilth of the fields was very 

 fine and mellow. The Poland China type of hog is chiefly raised. After 

 being fed on lucerne for a year or so, they are fed on corn (maize) for 

 about sixty days and shipped to market. 



The fields were also green with winter wheat, which is largely grown. 

 It is sown in the fall (autumn), and during the winter months cattle are 

 grazed on it. This wheat is harvested in June and July. Sheep are not 

 raised in this part of the West, farmers holding that sheep injure the 

 pasturage for cattle. 



The subject of prohibition may not at first sight seem to come within 

 the scope of an agricultural report, but to my mind there is no doubt that 

 the dry-town has had a beneficial effect on the dry-farmer. The State of 

 Kansas has gone solid for prohibition, with the result that whereas in the 

 city of Wichita, with a population of 50,000, where formerly there were 

 fifty saloons, there are none to-day. The law is now being rigorously 

 enforced, not _by the local but by the State authorities. In short, the 

 hard-won earnings of the farmer and the mechanic, which formerly were 

 too often dissipated in the down-town saloon, are now being expended in 

 better food and clothes for themselves and their families. It would be 

 outside my province to ent^r into a discussion of the pros and cons of this 

 great problem, but I would merely say that the American farmer has 

 added to his industry, his courage, and his intelligence the sterling virtue 

 of sobriety. And in modern competition it is sheer folly to minimise the 

 driving force and staying power of a water-drinking people. 



During the evening we passed through the north-west corner of 

 'Oklahama, and next morning we were speeding through the flat sandy 

 plains of the Panhandle of Texas. 



Texas, the Lone Star State, has many curious laws. Take the ques- 

 tion of railroads. You may enter the State on the * Santa Fe Railway n ; 

 a little later you find yourself on the " Southern Kansas of Texas," and 

 finally on the " Pecos and Northern Texas " — but still all under the Santa 

 Fe system. I was told that the Texas Railroad Commission demands that 

 every railway entering the State must maintain separate administration 

 and clerical establishments within the State, under distinct names, other- 

 wise it might be possible to operate a great railway such as the Santa Fe 

 directly from an office in Chicago, one thousand miles away. 



* See description on page 32. 



