Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 11.djvu/425

KANSAS. The only wooded portions of any extent are in the extreme eastern part, although most of the river courses have narrow fringes of trees. The most common species of trees are oak, elm, cottonwood, hickory, honey-locust, willow, white ash, sycamore, and box-elder. Practically the whole area of the State consisted originally of grassy prairies, which in the east are well adapted for agriculture, and in the west form good grazing lands. . The climate of Kansas is in general very pleasant; the air is clear and dry, and sunny days by far predominate. The winters are as a rule mild and dry, though severe cold waves sometimes occur. In summer the temperature is often very high during the day, but the nights are invariably cool. The mean annual temperature ranges from 52° in the north to 58° in the south. The mean rainfall for the whole State is 26.42 inches, but it ranges from 40 inches in the east to 15 in the west. The line indicating a mean rainfall of 20 inches, the least precipitation with which agriculture can subsist without irrigation, crosses the State about one-third of its length from the western boundary, and in dry years is shifted as far east as the centre. This shows that in the western half, or at least in the western third of the State, agriculture cannot depend on a sufficient rainfall, and, in fact, disastrous droughts have several times occurred in this region. One favorable circumstance, however, lies in the fact that most of the rain falls in the early summer, when the crops are most in need of it. The prevailing winds are from the northwest. Barometric conditions, however, are unstable, and the State is subject to frequent tornadoes, and to hail and thunder storms of great severity. In summer great injury to crops is sometimes wrought by the hot winds which sweep across the fields, scorching everything that has life.

With proper irrigation of the western lands there is very little soil in Kansas unfit for agriculture. Glacial drift covers considerable portions with a rich soil, which, however, is seldom more than two feet thick. In the northeast are extensive deposits of loess, in some places 100 feet thick, and thinning gradually westward. This is a fine brown marl mingled with clay, and is of great fertility. The rich bottom-lands of the numerous rivers occupy a large area, and beyond these the prairies are everywhere covered with a layer of humus, sand mixed with vegetable mold, from two to three and in some places even ten feet thick. This humus is extremely fertile, especially in the eastern half of the State, where it is rich and black, gradually becoming lighter and browner toward the west.

For and, see these headings in the article.

. The surface geology of Kansas is simple, since the strata lie undisturbed and nearly horizontal. Hence the outcroppings of the comparatively thin strata of the main systems form broad belts, over 100 miles wide; there are, roughly, only three of these belts, which cross the State from north to south, dividing it approximately into three equal parts, though the central belt is somewhat narrower than the other two. The eastern belt, consisting of the Carboniferous system, begins in the extreme east with narrow outcroppings of the lower coal measures, the oldest strata in the State, but consisting for the greater part of the upper coal measures. This system is composed of numerous layers of sandstone, limestone, shales, clay, slate, etc., with interbedded seams of coal. To the west of the coal measures and overlying them appears a narrow belt of Permian sandstones, limestones, and conglomerates interlaid with red and green clays. Then follows the second or central belt, consisting in the northern half of Cretaceous rocks, largely of the Dakota and Niobrara groups, and in the southern half of the Jura-Trias system. Finally, the western third of the State is covered by the Neocene or upper Tertiary system. With the exception of the Jura-Trias region in the south central part, the strata are fossiliferous and have yielded many interesting fossils.

Though Kansas is primarily an agricultural State and devoid of mountains, yet its mineral deposits are of great value. Deposits of bituminous coal are found in at least five seams of workable thickness in the eastern portion, and probably underlie more than half of the State. The natural gas which occurs in the southeastern part is utilized largely for fuel and smelting purposes. Lead and zinc ores occur in intimate association in the limestone of the Lower Carboniferous in the southeast, where the strata have been tilted. The ores are chiefly galena and blende. In the Permian and partly in the uppermost Carboniferous strata running north and south through the centre of the State are extensive deposits of rock salt and gypsum. The latter cover a belt many miles wide and are found in massive beds fifteen feet thick, interlaid with shale and limestone. Large deposits of chalk appear in the Niobrara formation of the Cretaceous series, and clay is found in almost inexhaustible quantities in numerous localities. Equally inexhaustible are the building-stones, which are among the most important of the natural resources of Kansas. In the east central region are wide belts of limestone of various shades somewhat loosely textured and easily wrought, while excellent sandstones are yielded by the Dakota group of the Cretaceous formation and by a large portion of the Tertiary series in the west.

. The mining industry of Kansas is centred mainly in the southeast corner of the State. For many years lead has been mined at Galena. In 1900 the output of the Galena field was estimated at 5059 tons, a smaller amount than that of former years. Zinc, also mined in that part of the State, is largely smelted; much ore coming also to the smelting-works from the Joplin District of Missouri. The yield of zinc in 1900 amounted to 57,276 short tons. Of late years the most valuable mineral produced in this section of the State has been coal. Kansas ranks third among the States west of the Mississippi River in the annual value of its coal output. With the exception of the three years 1893-95, the yield increased steadily from 55,000 tons in 1880 to 4,467,870 in 1900. Over half the product is obtained in Crawford County, and the greater part of the remainder in Cherokee County. In a number of counties a little farther west and north, especially Allen County, natural gas is obtained, the output having fluctuated in value from about $200,000 to over $500,000, the latter value being attained in 1889. In 1900 the value