USA > Kansas > Sedgwick County > History of Wichita and Sedgwick County, Kansas, past and present, including an account of the cities, towns and villages of the county, Vol. II > Part 18
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CHAPTER XLIX.
AGRICULTURE IN SEDGWICK COUNTY.
By THE EDITOR.
In this age when everybody works extremely hard to keep from working, it is very refreshing to turn to agriculture as a theme, not as an avocation. Sedgwick county with its thriving city of Wichita making a vast market place for the products of the farm, with its perfect network of railways bisecting every portion of Kansas, and a fast increasing population, makes of this county and agricultural empire.
The early fathers realized the possibilities of the soil of Sedgwick county; the early settler was a wheat raiser, but the later settler and occupier of the land does diversified farming. His first inclination was to raise wheat and corn, later on he began to raise oats and rye, and later on the average farmer raises all of the crops grown in this latitude and moves most of his grain to market on the hoof. East of the Arkansas river, upon the upland east of Wichita, very little wheat is raised; corn, Kaffir corn, oats and alfalfa are the rule; west of the Big Arkansas River more wheat is raised. This section also runs largely to alfalfa. Ordinarily the wheat fields are excellent pas- ture; stock thrives unusually well upon wheat pasture, where are also located some good old straw stacks. Sedgwick county at this time is well fenced and well cultivated. The farmers of late have fallen into the habit, and it is a good one, of cutting their corn and shocking it up. They find that it makes most excellent feed. As the times goes by the average farmer in Sedg- wick county will more and more preserve and save his feed. Some day the old-fashioned silo will be introduced into this county. For many years past the green wheat pasture has taken the place of the silo, but the silo will come. With it will come the cow pea and the soy bean and more alfalfa, and the more
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alfalfa the more profit and the more success in agriculture in Sedgwick county.
THE EVOLUTION OF THE FARM.
In Sedgwick county and in all of Kansas there has been a very distinct and striking evolution of the farm. First came the sod house and the dugout, and this lasted through the first decade. The first frame house, usually in a school district, was the school house. This was necessarily a frame structure. It was usually built upon some prairie swell. It was utilized for schools, church services, Sunday School gatherings and picnics, and here the young campaign orator was wont to fly his lin- guistic kite and practice upon the dear people. Soon the sod houses and dugouts gave way to more commodious frame struc- tures and soon the railroad came along, and as under the Kansas law the taxes paid by the railroad goes to the various school districts through which the railway runs, the frame school house rapidly gave way to one of brick, and the school house in Kan- sas in its betterment and evolution led the farm house. But the farm house came, with its windmill and barn and outbuildings and all that goes to make a home and make that home enjoyable. The early fathers were great on planting trees. First they wanted shade, and the old-time reliable cottonwood was the tree planted. Later on came the box alder, the elm and catalpa, and the locust in its various varieties, for shade and posts, and later on for fuel. So that today the entire landscape has changed. Where once was an almost boundless prairie stretching away to the horizon's rim are now comfortable homes, cultivated fields and shady groves, which are a continual delight to the eye. Surely the man who owns a good home in Sedgwick county and has his stock around him has his lines cast in very pleasant places.
KAFFIR CORN.
Of late years Kaffir corn has been one of the very best crops raised in Sedgwick county, and in fact, in this portion of Kansas. A few years ago the farmers in the arid belt of Kansas began casting about for a dry weather crop. It was then discovered that Kaffir corn, or, as it was then called, rice corn, was such a crop. It was soon discovered that Kaffir corn made good flour
FRIENDS UNIVERSITY.
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and that its flour made excellent pancakes. Dr. Workman, of Ashland, Clark county, Kansas, claims to have introduced this crop into Kansas. The doctor, who now resides in Morraine Park, Colo., still makes this claim, and raises this crop exten- sively on his ranch in Clark county, Kansas. Since its introduc- tion it has been extended to all parts of Kansas and is raised very successfully in Sedgwick county. It can be sown from the first of April to the first of August, and is often sown after the wheat is taken off the field. One fine characteristic of this crop is that it will curl up and wait for a rain. During dry weather Kaffir corn stands still and when the rain comes it goes on. Each head of cultivated Kaffir corn equals an ear of corn. Drilled with a wheat drill this crop makes the very nicest kind of hay; as a forage crop it is unsurpassed, does not sour with rain and damp weather after being harvested, like cane, and is eaten with great relish by all kinds of stock. Ground into meal, it makes fine calf and hog feed, and is especially relished by young stock. It also makes good horse feed. Kaffir corn is now almost a necessity and it is growing in favor with the farmer as the years go by.
ALFALFA.
The introduction of alfalfa into Kansas made agricultural history in the state. Sedgwick county as one of the leading agricultural counties of Kansas early took an active part in the planting and culture of this truly great forage plant. No plant in the interior West excels alfalfa as an all-around forage and feeding plant. Wichita and Sedgwick county are located in the very heart of the alfalfa belt. Alfalfa is best raised upon a soil with a porous subsoil; in fact, this porous subsoil is an absolute necessity for a continuous growth, and while upon other soils the plant may make a partial success, upon a rich soil with a porous subsoil it is a lasting and perpetual crop. The writer was shown a field of alfalfa which was being cut for the first time on the 28th day of March that it was claimed had been in this crop and successfully so for 300 years. This field is located just north of the City of Mexico. Alfalfa makes its best growth as a forage plant in a medium season with a medium rainfall. In dry weather it makes a seed crop, which is even more val- uable than the forage crop. Sam Forsha once told me that in
,
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digging a well upon the Forsha ranch in Reno county, this well being located in an old alfalfa field, that he found the roots had gone down thirty feet. In this belt, wherein is located Sedgwick county, four crops per season is the usual yield. In an unusually wet year five crops can be cut. There are few animals upon the farm that will not eat alfalfa. Poultry of all kinds will eat it. Hogs will live upon alfalfa hay and it is medicine to a sick cow. Horses and mules thrive upon it and are maintained in prime condition upon alfalfa without grain. The Kansas farmer who can raise alfalfa is always thrifty. The returns of the crop exceed his wildest dreams of avarice. In addition to this, this crop has proven a most excellent fertilizer; it renews the soil and brings it back to its former fertility; it renews the humus in the soil.
In many parts of Colorado, where it is most successfully grown by irrigation, and in the old world, alfalfa is called Luzerne. It matters little what it is called. Under proper con- ditions it is a perpetual crop, and is probably the surest and best crop that the Kansas farmer can raise. Its friends become its earnest advocates and their praise is so unstinted that they are often termed alfalfa cranks. So be it, but observation teaches us this lesson, that all of the Kansas farmers who have stuck to this crop have attained a competence and are beyond want. Fortunate indeed is that farmer who can successfully raise alfalfa, and fortunate indeed is that county which, like Sedg- wick county, is in the very heart of the great alfalfa belt.
THE RAISING OF ALFALFA.
By CHARLES CHANCE.
For the past ten years Sedgwick county has rapidly forged to the front in the raising of alfalfa. Its soil is peculiarly adapted to the raising of this wonderful plant. The raiser of alfalfa becomes so enamored with the crop and its product that his friends look upon him as a crank. No man can long culti- vate this plant without becoming an enthusiast. More good money is taken off from a field containing a good stand of alfalfa than any crop that can be raised in Kansas. Sedgwick county is in the very heart of the great alfalfa belt. It other places it
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can be raised, possibly with success, moderate success, but in this great natural belt of country it can be most successfully grown without any artificial means. In many portions of eastern Colo- rado and New Mexico this plant is raised by irrigation. Not so in Sedgwick county, where, carefully planted and grown, it turns off usually four good forage crops and becomes a perennial plant. Its product is used for manifold purposes upon the farm, being feed for all kinds of stock, and no grain is needed for horse feeding, as it is known as a balanced ration by the state agricultural college of this state. Alfalfa hay is the equal of good bran and is so denominated. Alfalfa can be sown at any time during the growing season when you have the ground ready, but experienced alfalfa raisers usually sow in April in spring sowing and in August for fall seeding. The latter month is preferable. Alfalfa raising is excellent for restoring worn out ground and its cultivation for a number of years upon barren and worn out soil restores the humus, and the plowing up of this crop followed by a crop of wheat or corn brings most abun- dant crops. I can safely say that all the crops raised by the Kansas farmer, and especially the skilled farmer, in Sedgwick county, alfalfa is the favorite.
ALFALFA AN IMPERIAL FORAGE PLANT.
Alfalfa, though a comparatively new product in the United States, is as old as the civilization of man. It has been cultivated since the dawn of ancient history. It was familiar to the Egyp- tians, Medes and Persians. It followed Xerxe's invasion into Greecil, 470 B. C. From Greece the Romans procured it and Caesar planted it as forage for his cavalry in his military cam- paigns. It is known in parts of Europe as Luzerne or Lucerne, which name is said to be taken from a river valley in northern Italy. The Spanish name alfalfa is the one adopted in this coun- try. It followed the Spanish invasion of South America into Mexico, Peru and Chili, from whence it found its way into Southern California about 1854, and from whence it has grad- ually traveled eastward until it is now grown in almost every state in the Union. But in no state do all conditions conspire for the successful growth of this plant so completely as in Kansas.
Alfalfa is not a tame grass, but belongs to the family of Leguminosae. Leguminous plants differ from the tame grasses
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in two essential points. First, they bear their fruit or seed in a pod, like the pea or bean, and, second, they obtain nitrogen from the air through the roots, by the aid of small microscopical insects that burrow in the roots of the plant. The anatomical construction of these little insects is such that in breathing the air they separate the nitrogen and feed it to the plant, while the plant in turn supports the insect, they living in symbiosis, depen- dent one upon the other, hence soil that is porous or well aired is necessary for the successful growth of the plant. Alfalfa is the deepest rooting plant of any with which the farmer has to do. Where the earth is free from stones the roots will penetrate twelve feet or more to water. I have a photograph of roots of a four-year-old plant showing them to be twelve feet and six inches long. Hence the plant's great resisting powers against drouth. Under favorable conditions the life of the plant seems unlimited. There are fields in Kansas thirty years old and in Mexico some reported seventy-five years old, which produce on an average four or more crops a year, yielding one or more tons an acre each crop. Little attention was given in this country to the growing of this most profitable crop until within the last ten years, as is shown by the assessor's returns for this state. The returns show for the state in 1891, 31,384 acres, in 1899 the acreage had increased to 278,477 acres, and in 1910 more than 1,000,000 acres. During this time agricultural and scientific institutions have done wonders in showing the value and possi- bilities of agricultural products and especially of alfalfa. They tell us that 95 per cent of the land in Kansas will grow alfalfa with varying degrees of success; that one ton of prime alfalfa hay is equal in feeding properties to thirty-five bushels of corn; that alfalfa hay, fed with corn to fattening hogs is worth $35 a ton with pork at 5 cents a pound; that nitrogen is the most val- uable fertilizer known and the most difficult to obtain, and that by the operation of these little bacterial insects, spoken of above, the nitrogen is separated from the oxygen of the air, given to the plant for its nourishment and returned by the plant to the soil, thereby increasing rather than diminishing its fertility from year to year. We are told that alfalfa contains a greater per- centage of protein, the element in feed that produces blood, bone and muscle, than any other known food; that fed with corn, as a balanced ration, it has no equal in the production of meats, and this is equally true in the production of eggs, milk
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and poultry; that for young, growing animals, where healthy and rapid growth are desired, with good bone, blood and muscle, there is no feed so valuable as alfalfa, owing to its large digestive and protein content; that of all the forage plants known, alfalfa loses least of its feeding value in curing from the green to the dry state; that no hay is so succulent and palatable in winter as alfalfa and so much relished by stock. So much for the history and habits of this plant. Now for the practical application.
Alfalfa is a voracious feeder on the salts of the soil, such as lime, phosphorus, potash, magnesium, etc., found in the soils of Kansas in such great abundance, and more especially in the river and creek bottoms of the state, where the soil is known as "gumbo."
I desire to speak more particularly of this Arkansas valley and of that part of it in and around Wichita. It is admitted by all who are competent to judge that this Arkansas valley in and around Wichita is the most desirable and productive alfalfa land, all things considered, in the state. The soil is deep, black and rich, very open, often in dry weather cracking to a depth of three or four feet, thus affording air plentifully to the little insect spoken of that lives on the root of the alfalfa plant. Inex- haustible sheet water is found ten to fifteen feet from the sur- face of the ground, with no rock underneath the soil, thus allow- ing the roots of the plant to penetrate to perpetual moisture. In my residence of twenty-five years I have never seen an alfalfa plant wither in hot or dry weather. During last July the mer- cury rose six consecutive days to an average of 104 degrees, but the alfalfa plants showed no signs of wilting. In dry times I have seen the sunflower and ragweed wilt, but the alfalfa, never. In the growing season I have seen the alfalfa in this valley grow from a half an inch to an inch a day. Alfalfa seed is a very val- uable crop, worth $10 to $12 a bushel, when it can be raised, but it has not proven a profitable crop in this valley for the reason that the growth of the plant is so vigorous that it makes too much straw and not enough grain. Seed growing is more profit- able on the higher lands that are not so fertile and have less moisture. Four crops a year can be easily grown here, averaging a ton an acre for each crop. I have seen grown in one season, with four cuttings, six and one-fifth tons on an acre. Hay is selling now for from $8 to $12 per ton. However, the prudent farmer is the one who carefully pastures his alfalfa fields eight
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months in summer and winters his stock the other four months on the cured hay. Wichita, in the production for market of alfalfa, is the leading city on this continent. The success of this enterprise is due more to the sagacity and clear-headed business management of our fellow townsman, Mr. Otto Weiss, president of the Otto Weiss Alfalfa Stock Food Company, than to any other man. A few years ago Mr. Weiss began, in a small way, the grinding of alfalfa hay and compounding it with grain, making a poultry food. To this he soon added food for stock. His business grew so that about three years ago he organized the company named above, with $50,000 capital, since which time he has shipped his stock food to most of the eastern and southern states in car lots. Recently he has doubled his capacity and capital to meet the steady and rapid demands for his feeds.
This company grinds the alfalfa and compounds with it corn, oats and other grain, making a balanced ration, as by the approved feeding tables of the day. This milling of alfalfa hay promises to grow into one of the most important branches of trade at an early day, making Wichita as famous for her alfalfa milling as Minneapolis is for flour milling. The American Ware- house Company has a large mill for the grinding of alfalfa in Wichita and it finds ready sale for its products. There are at least half a dozen smaller mills running to their full capacity. It was always a question for debate with the Greeks as to which was the greater gift to man, "the olive or the horse." If I were asked to name the most valuable food for stock, all things considered, I would name alfalfa, for with no other single food can the farmer and stock raiser accomplish so much. Horses and mules can be grown to perfection on it, without grain; so can hogs, cattle and sheep be grown ready for the feeding yards without the use of other food, and the same is true of poultry. So important a part does alfalfa play in the production of poul- try and meats for the market that no intelligent farmer or stock man nowadays thinks of leaving alfalfa out of his feed rations, if it is possible to procure it. Hence it is hardly in the mind of man to conceive the future wealth and prosperity of this Arkan- sas valley, when 25 per cent of our lands are planted to alfalfa and the products used for the support and comfort of man. Wichita can safely calculate on alfalfa as one of her most valuable assets for future growth .- Robert M. Piatt.
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IS THIS A FRUIT COUNTRY?
This is a query often propounded. The soil seems right, the climate seems right, the moisture is sufficient, but the late frosts sometimes get the fruit in bloom, and sometimes after it is set. A Wichita man who visited the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific fair at Seattle was greatly attracted by the fruit exhibit there made and asked the cause and the whys of the situation. He was told by those in charge that the fruit raisers of Washington and Oregon has as much late frost as we have in Sedgwick county, Kansas, but by the use of the frost meter they were warned of an approaching frost and fall of the temperature. The plan is this, set your frost meter at 40 degrees and when the mercury falls to that point the meter rings a bell at the head of the owner's bed. Thereupon the owner jumps out, gets into his clothes, rouses his family, and with his wife and children at once lights all of the smudge pots in his orchard. This tempers the air and wards off the frost. Mr. Sullivan, the government weather observer at Wichita, has a very reasonable and scientific theory on this subject. He has made a careful study of this situation. He says that the best fruit is raised inside of the frost line; common observation teaches this. Mr. Sullivan is an ardent advocate of the use of the smudge pot in the orchard, and so for the past few months this theory of warding off the frost by the use of smudge pots has been followed by the orchardists and fruit growers of Sedgwick county. Those who have adopted this method speak highly in its praise, and those who have used it think that Sedgwick county is a fruit country. By the above means are produced nearly every year fine fruit and especially apples, in the valley of the Grand river in Colo- rado, at North Yakima, in the state of Washington, and in the far-famed Hood River valley, in the state of Oregon. Why not in Sedgwick county ?
CHAPTER L. FRUIT RAISING IN SEDGWICK COUNTY.
By FRANK YAW.
I came to Wichita as a tramp. I had no home and no place to go to; no one to care for me and no money to speak of. I tramped into Wichita and tramped out again, as I had no other way of going. I could have taken a claim close to Wichita, but I had no use for one, although I could see great possibilities in the Arkansas valley. After leaving Wichita I tramped to Colo- rado and New Mexico and went to work on a cow range for Stephen Jones, of Las Animas, Colo., now of Strong City, Kan. Later I worked on a cow range for Judge R. W. Moore, of Las Animas, now deceased. In all the years in which I was a reckless cowboy I had a love for Wichita. I used to look at the wild flowers, such as people grow around their homes, and say to myself: "Well, if I had a home I would have just such flowers."
Reason told me that I had no excuse whatever for not having a home, so I finally left the cow range in Colorado and came back to Wichita with the determination to have a home. At first I went to work on the Santa Fe Railroad under old Mr. Streeter as foreman, with the words ringing in my ears con- tinually, "Get a home!" But it takes money to get a home and I had none. Still reason and common sense stayed with me and told me that where there is a will there is a way. So what little money I got from the railroad company after my board and lodg- ing was paid I invested in two lots on North Water street, a little north of Oak street, in Wichita, on the installment plan. In due time I had the lots paid for, and then the next question was how to get a house. I had no money to build a house with, but was not discouraged. My reason told me that "where there's a will there's a way."
I next went to work on a farm for Dr. Minturn, sixteen miles northwest of Wichita. Dr. Minturn advanced me $500 to build a house on my two lots, and I was to work on his farm at $20 a
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month until the $500 was paid back. E. B. Jewett, probate judge, drew up the contract. Then Dr. Minturn's hired girl, Miss Mary Alice Adamson, and I were married, the ceremony being per- formed June 23, 1883. We went to housekeeping in our own home, which was paid for then. During the Wichita real estate boom we traded our little home for twenty acres of land five miles south of the city. This was in the spring of 1889. The owners of the land valued it at $150 per acre. We valued our little home at $3,000, and they gave us $200 bonus. That money built us a little house that kept us dry and warm. We bought a plug horse, had a good cow, and bought what few tools we could not get along without. We plowed and planted our land. Everything grew that we planted and everything looked prom- ising until May 7, 1889. Then came one of the worst sand storms that Kansas has ever seen. We did not know how to guard against this or how to keep the sand from drifting, and all our growing crops were destroyed. It looked discouraging and my wife was discouraged, but as St. Paul the Apostle said, so did I: "Come, let us reason together. We have no hired hands to pay; we have no interest to pay; we will manage to live." Wc planted again and raised a whole lot of good things to eat, plenty of feed for our cow and horse and pigs and chickens, and our twenty acres stocked itself with fruit trees. One of our neigh- bors told us that we were cheated out of our little home in the city, as our land would not grow corn. My reply was: "If it will not grow corn it will grow something else," and the finest cherries that were ever placed on the Wichita market were grown on the ground that the neighbor said would not grow corn. We can show a good growth of trees and as good and profitable a crop of fruit as anyone else in the United States. To be sure, we have freezes and floods, and sand storms and hail storms, but they have them elsewhere just the same. In 1904 we had a freeze in April, two hail storms in May and June, and a flood in July. All these killed 200 cherry trees twelve years old, and yet we sold enough fruit from our twenty acres that year to pay our honest debts and take our two daughters to the World's Fair at St. Louis. To be sure, there are injurious insects and fungus diseases, but they have the same elsewhere, but these can be controlled if one goes about it in the right manner.
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