CEREALS AT THE AKRON FIELD STATION 3 
HISTORY OF THE DISTRICT 
The district in which the station is located forms part of what was 
once called the Great American Desert. It was the feeding ground 
for the bison and antelope and the home of the prairie dog, coyote, 
jack rabbit, and badger. The bison has long since been exterminated, 
and but few antelope remain. The jack rabbits, prairie dogs, coy- 
otes, and badgers are still numerous. This was the hunting ground 
of the western Indian tribes, and traces of Indian life are yet to be 
found in many places. 
The first white men to inhabit this district were the cattlemen, 
who held vast areas under their control. Following the building of 
the railway through the section in 1883, homesteading was begun. 
The prospect of free land brought thousands of settlers who knew 
nothing of dry-land farming practices and conditions. 
Among the settlers arriving in 1885 was M. F. Vance, a farmer who 
still lives near the station and one of the men who was instrumental 
ric. 1.—View of the buildings at the Akron Field Station in 1908 
in getting it located at Akron. He states that homesteading was 
active as early as 1885, and that the peak of this early settlement was 
reached about 1886 or 1887. The cattlemen practically abandoned 
the section to the farmers about 1887. By that year also the towns 
established by the first settlers had grown almost to their present 
size, and some were considerably larger than now. Periods of severe 
drought occurred in the late eighties and again in 1893 and 1894. 
A bad grasshopper outbreak occurred in 1895, and the two following 
years also were unfavorable to crop production. During this period 
of bad years people left in large numbers, many of them not remaining 
even long enough to obtain patents to their land. Many who re- 
mained were forced to mortgage their land, only to lose it later by 
foreclosure. The great reduction of the farming population reacted 
immediately on the towns, and they also were rarely deserted. Some 
buildings in the towns were loaded on cars and shipped away, and 
many others were moved out to the country by the ranchers who 
stayed. 
