Sweet clover and Soudan grass have increased so much in acreage in very recent years that they are rapidly becoming important crops in this state.
[Illustration: Upper, threshing scene in a Kansas wheat field. Lower, train of fifty cars of threshing machines on the way to the Kansas wheat fields.]
=The Sorghum Crops.= Another of the new crops was Kafir corn, which has also proved very valuable. This plant is a variety of sorghum. Other varieties had been raised in Kansas for many years, especially the sweet sorghum that could be used for making sugar and molasses. Broom corn is another sorghum crop that has been grown in Kansas for a long while and is raised in large quantities in the southwestern part of the State. In more recent years two more sorghums, milo and feterita, give promise of becoming valuable forage crops.
[Illustration: THE BEET SUGAR FACTORY AT GARDEN CITY.]
=Sugar Beets.= During the early ’80’s considerable sugar had been made from sorghum cane, but in 1889 it was, for the first time, made from beets. For a number of years experiments were made with sugar beets in different parts of western Kansas. To encourage sugar-beet raising a bounty was offered by the State, and a good many tons were raised and shipped to sugar factories in Colorado and Nebraska. In 1906 a large factory was completed at Garden City, and the raising of sugar beets has become an important industry in that part of Kansas. Efforts are now being made to introduce this crop into other parts of the State.
[Illustration: STOCKYARDS AT KANSAS CITY.]
=The Twenty-five Years Following 1893.= Progress was checked in 1893 by the financial panic that extended throughout the country. Values dropped, and prices were low on everything the farmers had to sell. In addition to the panic, Kansas suffered a crop failure in most parts of the State. That was a discouraging period, but within a few years Kansas had recovered. From that time until the present there has been a steady rise in all values. Owing largely to the fact that there is no longer any free land to be taken as homesteads, land prices have steadily risen. The price of land products has also greatly increased. In 1893 corn was worth but ten to fifteen cents a bushel and wheat from thirty to forty cents. A comparison of these with present prices serves to show how great has been the change.