report to the State Board of Agriculture, on the last Wednesday of each month, of the condition of crops in his district or county, make a list of such noxious insects as are destroying crops, and state the extent of their depradations, report the condition of stock, give a description of the symptoms of any disease prevailing among the same, with means of prevention and remedies employed so far as ascertained, and such other as will be of interest to the farmers of the state,” etc. Chapter 37, session laws of 1879, provides that the monthly reports required to be made to and by the board of agriculture, by virtue of existing provisions of law, shall hereafter be made quarterly instead of monthly, except when the public interests shall require special reports. Fifty-eight county societies were organized as early as 1874.
The decade from 1880 to 1890 is replete with new suggestions, new methods and new ideals for agricultural development. The hope of earlier years developed into confidence and in 1884 the report of the state board of agriculture says: “During the biennial period just past, nearly 2,000,000 additional acres have been put in cultivation. The principal field crops, corn, wheat, oats and grass, have received each a proportionate amount of this increase in acreage, the most notable additon being to the winter wheat area, which increased from 1,465,745 acres in 1882 to 2,151,868 acres in 1884 . . . The area of grass, made up of the tame grasses and prairie meadow under fence, increased in two years nearly 1,000,000 acres. The westward march of the tame grasses may be said to have commenced within the period covered by this volume. Fields of timothy, clover, orchard-grass, blue grass and many other kinds, are now to be found in the central counties, and even beyond, while such fields were rarely met two years ago . . . The results of farming operations in Kansas for the past two years, . . . have definitely settled any doubt as to the entire fitness of the eastern half of the state to the successful prosecution of agriculture in all its branches. The debatable ground of ten years ago is now producing crops that have placed Kansas among the three great agricultural states of the Union, and the soil that ten years ago was believed to the satisfaction of many to be unfit for diversified farming, is now producing average yields that largely exceed the yields of any other portion of the country.”
During the years 1883–84, in complying with the law, the state board of agriculture issued each year a pamphlet intended to supply information concerning the resources and capabilities of the state, to those seeking homes in the west. “This report was restricted by law to 60 pages, and the edition each year to 65,000 couies, divided into 20,000 English copies, 20,000 German, 15,000 Swedish, and 10,000 Danish.”
The encouraging outlook for the realization of hope in all fields of industry was circumscribed by a drought in 1887. The five prosperous years preceding it were unduly stimulated by heavy immigration and outside capital, the prevalence of fictitious values in all branches of business caused the crop failures of that year to fall more heavily upon
