State charitable and penal institutions are under the supervision of a State board of administration. Hospitals for the insane are maintained at Topeka, Larned and Osawatomie, and a hospital for epileptics at Parsons. Other State institutions are the school for feeble-minded youths at Winfield; the State tubercular sanatorium at Norton; the State orphans' home at Atchison; the State soldiers' home at Ft. Dodge ; Mother Bickerdyke home at Ellsworth ; a school for the blind at Kansas City; a school for the deaf at Olathe; an in dustrial school for girls at Beloit, and a similar school for boys at Topeka ; an industrial farm for women at Lansing ; a reforma tory for young criminals at Hutchinson; and the State peniten tiary at Lansing. The State also contributes to many institutions on a private basis. Most of the counties maintain poor farms and administer outdoor relief.
Kansas is pre-emi nently rural, and agriculture is one of the chief industries. The U.S. census of agriculture in 1935 showed that 48,009,70oac., or 90% of the total area, were in farms, and that 16,663,186ac. were crop land. The total farm acreage showed an increase from 45,425,179ac. in 1920, but the number of farms decreased from 177,841 in 1910 to 174,589 in
Of the total number of farms in
96,896 were op erated by owners and 76,771 by tenants. The total farm popula tion in 193o was 704,601; 698,809 white and 4,392 coloured. The value of all farm property had decreased from $3,302,806,187 in 1920 to $2,695,594,76o in 1930, when the average value per farm was $13,738. The total value of all crops, exclusive of live stock, was $588,923,248 in 1919 but dropped to $301,655,000 in 1925 and to $299,152,090 in 1929. Wheat is by far the most important agricultural product. In 1929, for instance, a wheat acreage of 12, o81,021ac., produced 148,482,595bus., valued at $150,527,327. This was more than twice that of any other state. Winter wheat constituted almost the entire crop. The hard varieties rank in the flour market with the finest Minnesota wheat. The principal wheat belt crosses the State from north to south in its central third. Second in importance is Indian corn. In 1929, 5,648,934ac. ' devoted to it produced 101,355,51ibus., worth $72,120,759. The corn crop is variable in both acreage and yield, the yield in 5929 having been 17.9bus. per acre, compared with an average of 20.3bus., for the years 192o-25. The Indian corn belt is mainly in the eastern third of the State. The cereal next in importance is oats, 21,526,565bus. having been the product for 1929. In the western third, irrigation has been tried unsuccessfully; in all Kansas, in 1930, there were 683 farms irrigated, or only 0•4% of the total number of farms. These enterprises are found chiefly
along the Arkansas river. In this western part of the State the rainfall is insufficient for Indian corn; but Kaffir corn and other drought-resisting sorghums furnish an abundance of grain. In 1929 there were 727,517ac. planted in sorghums of all varieties; the grain yield was 10,655,82obus., a decrease of 43% since
Alfalfa because of its drought-resisting quality, is planted exten sively throughout the State. The hay crop in 1929 was 2,628,183 tons and had an approximate value of $25,323,281. Other crops of economic value were potatoes, barley, flax and broom corn. Sugar beet culture, tried with indifferent success since 1890, is of minor importance. Fruits grow well in Kansas where the rainfall is sufficient ; but with the exception of apples none has more than local commercial value. Alfalfa, soy-beans and the wheat fields— which furnish the finest of pasture in the early spring and ordi narily well into the winter season—are the principal elements of a prosperous dairy business. Western Kansas is the dairy coun try. Its great ranges, whose insufficient rainfall makes impos sible the certain, and therefore the profitable, cultivation of cereals or other settled agriculture, lend themselves to stock and dairy farming. Stock raising and dairy farming have, for that reason, demanded constantly increasing attention. Dairy products in 1929 were worth $41,906,403.
There should be taken into consideration, when comparing the statistics of the 1935 census of agriculture with those of previous censuses, the influence of the severe drought of 1934 as well as the general economic conditions prevailing throughout the coun try. The number of acres listed as "crop failures" on account of the destruction of crops by wind, hail, drought, floods, insects, and so forth amounted to 7,435,680 in 1934 as compared with 967,761 in 1929. The almost complete failure of the wheat crop in the southwestern part of the State resulted in only
bushels of winter wheat and 189,089 bushels of spring wheat be ing threshed. There were also threshed 17,110,125 bushels of oats, 1,132,072 bushels of barley and 538,148 bushels of grain sorghums. Corn harvested for grain amounted to 892,355 bushels, tame or meadow hay to 861,000 tons and alfalfa to 644,816 tons. Products of 72 dairy establishments were valued in 1933 at
421,000. In consequence of this decline the activities of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration met with little enthusi asm among the Kansas farmers, who registered their discontent in a heavily adverse poll on the proposed plan for the control of corn and hogs.