Early agriculture

American Agriculture History Minute: Early Agriculture in Kansas Often Unsuccessful

Dan American Agriculture History Minute, This Land of Ours

Early agriculture
Haskell County, Kansas. Home of large farmer who is making a success of his farming. Perhaps the best farm house in the vicinity, was planned and built by its owner, a very progressive young man with an A.B. degree from Kansas State and, incidentally, the inventor of the now common “round-top” storage building, one of which is shown next to the house.
By Irving Rusinow, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

I’m Mark Oppold with an American Agriculture History Minute.

American Agriculture History Minute: Early Agriculture in Kansas Often Unsuccessful

Early agriculture in the state of Kansas was not always successful. Settlers began increasing in numbers when Kansas was opened to settlement in 1854. Many settlers brought seeds from the east or from their homeland. They planted mostly corn, but experimented with crops like oats, cotton, even tobacco. Most did not fare well in the Kansas climate.

The grasshopper plague 1874 didn’t help, and it was Mennonite settlers from Russia who were accustomed to growing wheat found success in the prairies of Kansas. By 1888, Kansas was on its way to becoming the wheat state.

That’s today’s American Agriculture History Minute. I’m Mark Oppold. Thanks for reading. I’ll see you next time.