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Capitol at Topeka, which by its distribution of instructive and practically helpful literature to farmers is unique among such institutions and quite distinct from the agricultural college and experiment stations. Numerous farmers' institutes and other kindred organizations have, too, their helpful influences.

In the middle portion are the famous wheat-growing counties, and in the eastern half the great corn- and clover-counties, although corn and wheat are grown in every county, as is, with two or three exceptions, alfalfa, without doubt the state's most valuable forage-plant. The growing appreciation of alfalfa is indicated by its increased area since its considerable introduction about 1890 to 956,962 acres in 1909, placing Kansas first in acreage and production. Beetgrowing for sugar-making is a new feature, beginning experimentally in 1901. In 1906 one of the most modern beet-sugar factories in the world in construction and equipment was erected in western Kansas at Garden City, the center of activity in sugar-beet territory.

Kansas has inexhaustible supplies of pure water 10 to 200 feet beneath the surface, available for irrigation by windmill or other power, and this is being utilized extensively in numerous localities. Water from the Arkansas River and its underflow irrigates considerable areas in its fertile valley, although only a small portion of the total cultivated area is irrigated, and this is confined almost entirely to the valleys in the more western counties. Scarcely 50 per cent. of the area is under the plow, but the value of the total farm-products in 1909, with live stock on hand, was over $460,000,000. Statistics indicate the diversity of conditions by the variety of crops grown, there being annually reported cotton, hemp, flax, tobacco, sugar-beets, sorghums, broom-corn, Indian corn, wheat and other cereals and crops. The state perhaps is most conspicuous, however, as a wheat-raiser, and in the production of this grain ranks first. The yield in 1901 was nearly 100 million bushels, the greatest production by any state in one season. In the ten years ending with 1906 the state produced 707,480,388 bushels of wheat worth $424,339,237. By far the greater proportion of the wheat is grown in the central counties, popularly referred to as the wheat-belt. It is the corn crops, however, that have made the commonwealth rich, as it is on this crop that the immense meatmaking industries most largely depend. The largest yield was 273,888,321 bushels in 1889, and the most valuable was worth $78,321,653 in 1902. The area annually devoted to corn averaged in the ten years ending with 1906, 7,121,300 acres. The following table shows the quantities and values of several of the state's field crops in 1910: The fruits, especially apples, pears, cherries, peaches, plums, grapes and berries of high quality, are extensively grown. The number of fruit trees in 1911 was of apple 6,511,887, pear 418,482, peach 3,980,945, plum 598,287, cherry 760,242, quince 15,327 and apricot 183,169. In small fruits there were 9,978 acres, in vineyards 5,346 acres and in vegetable gardens 25,246 acres.

Stock Raising. Animal husbandry is a most important branch of Kansas agriculture. The numbers of different kinds of animals on hand April 15, 1910, and their values were: horses, 1,14 7,0 56–$112,758,108; mules, asses and burros, 213,369–$26,668,453; dairy cows, 736,107–$24,297,388; other cattle, 2,343,296–$56,260,055; sheep, 272,475–$1,209,931; and swine, 3,000,157–$24,706,885. The value of the cheese, butter and milk sold in 1906 was $9,192,746. Dairying has come to be a prominent industry, making prosperous communities wherever followed. What is said to be the largest creamery in the world is at Topeka. The magnitude of the meat-making industry may be suggested by the statement that often more and seldom less than 50 per cent. of the entire number of cattle annually received at the Kansas City, Kansas, stockyards are furnished by Kansas. In this market there were received and disposed of in 1911, 2,122,162 cattle, 3,163,985 hogs, 2,175,619 sheep, and 84,776 horses and mules.

Manufactures and Mining. Many establishments, as those for glassmaking, brick, cement and smelting, have recently grown up in southeastern Kansas as the result of the development of its zinc, oil and gas-bearing fields. Natural gas has given great impetus to such industries. Cement factories are operating on extensive scales, with large capital invested in their properties. The smelting and refining of zinc in 1909 amounted to $10,857,000, and in this industry Kansas has long ranked first. Besides vast deposits of natural gas, petroleum, lead and zinc, the state's coal is mostly mined in the southeast, and the value of the output in 1910 was $7,914,709. Quarries of superior limestone, sandstone and gypsum are worked in the more central counties; underlying many of these is a seemingly inexhaustible saltbed; and but two states surpass Kansas in salt production.

Population, The state is  divided into