coldest 52.6°. The extreme variation of yearly means throughout
the east, west and middle sections during the same period was
very slight, 51.6° to 56.6°, and the greatest variation for any one
section was 3.7°. The absolute extremes were 116° and −34°. The
dryness of the air tempers exceedingly to the senses the cold of
winter and the heat of summer. The temperature over the state
is much more uniform than is the precipitation, which diminishes
somewhat regularly westward. In the above period of seventeen
years the yearly means in the west section varied from 11.93 to
29.21 in. (av. 19.21), in the middle from 18.58 to 34.30 (av. 26.68),
in the east from 26.00 to 45.71 (av. 34.78); the mean for the state
ranging from 20.12 to 35.50 (av. 27.12).[1] The precipitation in the
west is not sufficient for confident agriculture in any series of years,
since agriculture is practically dependent upon the mean fall; a fact
that has been and is of profound importance in the history of the
state. The line of 20 in. fall (about the limit of certain agriculture)
approximately bisects the state in dry years. The precipitation is
very largely in the growing season—at Dodge the fall between April
and October is 78% of that for the year. Freshets and droughts
at times work havoc. The former made notable 1844 and 1858; and
the latter 1860, 1874 and 1894. Tornadoes are also a not infrequent
infliction, least common in the west. The years 1871, 1879, 1881 and
1892 were made memorable by particularly severe storms. There
are 150 to 175 “growing days” for crops between the frosts of spring
and autumn, and eight in ten days are bright with sunshine—half
of them without a cloud. Winds are prevailingly from the south (in
the winter often from the north-west).
Fauna and Flora.—The fauna and flora of the state are those which are characteristic of the plain region generally of which Kansas is a part. The state lies partly in the humid, or Carolinian, and partly in the arid, or Upper Sonoran, area of the Upper Austral life-zone; 100° W. long. is approximately the dividing line between these areas. The bison and elk have disappeared. A very great variety of birds is found within the state, either as residents or as visitants from the adjoining avifaunal regions—mountain, plain, northern and southern. In 1886 Colonel N. S. Goss compiled a list of 335 species, of which 175 were known to breed in the state. The wild turkey, once abundant, was near extermination in 1886, and prairie chickens (pinnated grouse) have also greatly diminished in number. The jack-rabbit is characteristic of the prairie. Locusts (“grasshoppers” in local usage) have worked incalculable damage, notably in 1854, 1866, and above all in 1874–1875. In the last two cases their ravages extended over a great portion of the state.
Kansas has no forests. Along the streams there is commonly a fringe of timber, which in the east is fairly heavy. There is an increasing scarcity westward. With the advancing settlement of the state thin wind-break rows become a feature of the prairies. The lessened ravages of prairie fires have facilitated artificial afforesting, and many cities, in particular, are abundantly and beautifully shaded. Oaks, elms, hickory, honey-locusts, white ash, sycamore and willows, the rapid growing but miserable box-elder and cottonwood, are the most common trees. Black walnut was common in the river valleys in Territorial days. The planting of tree reserves by the United States government in the arid counties of this state promises great success. A National Forest of 302,387 acres in Finney, Kearney, Hamilton and Grant counties was set aside in May 1908. Buffalo and bunch, and other short native prairie grasses, very nutritious ranging food but unavailable as hay, once covered the plains and pastured immense herds of buffalo and other animals, but with increasing settlement they have given way generally to exotic bladed species, valuable alike for pasture and for hay, except in the western regions. The hardy and ubiquitous sunflower has been chosen as the state flower or floral emblem. Cactus and yucca occur in the west.
The soil of the upland prairies is generally a deep rich clay loam of a dark colour. The bottom lands near the streams are a black sandy loam; and the intermediate lands, or “second bottoms,” show a rich and deep black loam, containing very little sand. These soils are all easily cultivated, free from stones, and exceedingly productive. There are exceptional spots on the upland prairies composed of stiff clay, not as easily cultivated, but very productive when properly managed and enriched. The south-west section is distinctively sandy.
Agriculture.—The United States Census of 1900 shows that of the farming area of the state in 1900 (41,662,970 acres, 79.6% of the total area), 60.1% was “improved.” The value of all farm property was $864,100,286—of which land and improvements (including buildings), livestock and implements and machinery represented respectively 74.5, 22.1 and 3.4%. Almost nine-tenths of all farms derived their principal income from livestock or hay and grain, these two sources being about equally important. Of the total value of farm products in 1899 ($209,895,542), crops represented 53.7, animal products 45.9 and forest products only 0.4%. In 1899 the wheat crop was 38,778,450 bushels, being less than that of Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio or South Dakota. According to the Year Book of the United States Department of Agriculture, the crop in 1906 was 81,830,611 bushels, almost one-ninth of the crop of the entire country for that year, and much more than the crop of any other state. In 1909 it was 87,203,000 bushels (less than the crops of either Minnesota or North Dakota). Winter wheat constitutes almost the entire output. The hard varieties rank in the flour market with the finest Minnesota wheat. The wheat belt crosses the state from north to south in its central third. Greater even than wheat in absolute output, though not relatively to the output of other states, is Indian corn. In 1906 the crop was 195,075,000 bushels, and in 1909 it was 154,225,000. The crop is very variable, according to seasons and prospective markets; ranging e.g. in the decade 1892–1901 from 42.6 (1901) to 225.1 (1899) million bushels. The Indian corn belt is mainly in the eastern third of the state. In the five years 1896–1900 the combined value of the crops of Indian corn and wheat exceeded the value of the same crops in any other state of the Union (Illinois being a close second). In the western third irrigation has been tried, in the earlier years unsuccessfully; in all Kansas, in 1899, there were 23,620 acres irrigated, of which 8939 were in Finney and 7071 in Kearney county. In this western third the rainfall is insufficient for Indian corn; but Kafir corn, an exceptional drought-resisting cereal, has made extraordinary progress in this region, and indeed generally over the state, since 1893, its acreage increasing 416.1% in the decade 1895–1904. With the saccharine variety of sorghum, which increased greatly in the same period, this grain is replacing Indian corn. Oats are the third great cereal crop, the yield being 24,780,000 bushels in 1906 and 27,185,000 in 1909. Alfalfa showed an increased acreage in 1895–1904 of 310.8%; it is valuable in the west for the same qualities as the Kafir corn. The hay crop in 1909 was 2,652,000 tons. Alfalfa, the Japanese soy bean and the wheat fields—which furnish the finest of pasture in the early spring and ordinarily well into the winter season—are the props of a prosperous dairy industry. In the early ’eighties the organization of creameries and cheese factories began in the county-seats; they depended upon gathered cream. About 1889 separators and the whole-milk system were introduced, and about the same time began the service of refrigerator cars on the railways; the hand separator became common about 1901. Western Kansas is the dairy country. Its great ranges, whose insufficient rainfall makes impossible the certain, and therefore the profitable, cultivation of cereals, or other settled agriculture, lend themselves with profit to stock and dairy farming. Dairy products increased 60.6% in value from 1895 to 1904, amounting in the latter year to $16,420,095. This value was almost equalled by that of eggs and poultry ($14,050,727), which increased 79.7% in the same decade. The livestock interest is stimulated by the enormous demand for beef-cattle at Kansas City.
Sugar-beet culture was tried in the years following 1890 with indifferent success until the introduction of bounties in 1901. It has extended along the Arkansas valley from the Colorado beet district and into the north-western counties. There is a large beet-sugar factory at Garden City, Finney county. Experiments have been made unsuccessfully in sugar cane (1885) and silk culture (1885 seq.). The bright climate and pure atmosphere are admirably adapted to the growth of the apple, pear, peach, plum, grape and cherry. The smaller fruits also, with scarce an exception, flourish finely. The fruit product of Kansas ($2,431,773 in 1899) is not, however, as yet particularly notable when compared with that of various other states.
According to the estimates of the state department of agriculture, of the total value of all agricultural products in the twenty years 1885–1904 ($3,078,999,855), Indian corn and wheat together represented more than two-fifths (821.3 and 518.1 million dollars respectively), and livestock products nearly one-third (1024.9 millions). The aggregate value of all agricultural products in 1903–1904 was $754,954,208.
Minerals.—In the east portion of the state are immense beds of bituminous coal, often at shallow depths or cropping out on the surface. In 1907 more than 95% of the coal came from Crawford, Cherokee, Leavenworth and Osage counties, and about 91.5% from the first two. The total value of the production of coal in 1905 (6,423,979 tons) was $9,350,542, and in 1908 (6,245,508 tons) $9,292,222. In the central portion, which belongs to the Triassic formation, magnesian limestone, ferruginous sandstone and gypsum are representative rocks. Gypsum (in beautiful crystalline form) is found in an almost continuous bed across the state running north-east and south-west with three principal areas, the northern in Marshall county, the central in Dickinson and Saline counties, and the southern (the heaviest, being 3 to 40 ft. thick) in Barber and Comanche counties. The product in 1908 was valued at $281,339. Magnesian limestone, or dolomite, is especially plentiful along the Blue, Republican and Neosho rivers and their tributaries. This beautiful stone, resembling white, grey and cream-coloured marble, is exceedingly useful for building purposes. It crops out in the bluffs in endless quantities, and is easily worked. The stone resources of the state are largely, but by no means exclusively, confined to the central part. There are marbles in Osage and other counties, shell marble in Montgomery county, white limestone in Chase county, a valuable bandera flagstone and hydraulic cement rock near Fort Scott, &c. The limestones produced in 1908 were valued at $403,176 and the sandstones at $67,950. In the central
- ↑ For the thirty years 1877–1906 the mean rainfall for ten-year periods was: at Dodge, 22.8 in., 18.4 in. and 22.7 in.; and at Lawrence, 35.1 in., 39.2 in. and 36.7 in. for the first, second and third periods respectively.
