Stone Quarry.
Portland Cement. Portland cement is a comparatively new product in the United States. The development of this industry in Kansas commenced about 1900. Portland cement is made from certain mixtures of rock substances, put through processes of grinding and heating. Its chief use is in making concrete, which is widely used for construction work. There are a number of Portland cement mills in the gas belt.
Glass. Gas is the most satisfactory fuel for glassmaking, and since the gas field in Kansas was opened a number of glass factories have been established in the State. Sand of a good quality for making glass has also been found in southeastern Kansas.
Agriculture the Basis of Material Progress. At present there are numbers of factories in Kansas, engaged in many different lines of work. Our industries are constantly growing in number and importance, and it takes all of them to make a well-rounded state, but it is the agricultural industries that form the basis of our prosperity. On these we must depend, and the history of agriculture in Kansas is, largely, the history of our material progress.
SUMMARY
The principal agricultural industries of the State are farming, stock raising and horticulture. The principal mineral industries are concerned with coal, lead, zinc, oil, gas, salt, building stone, and gypsum. The leading manufacturing industries are concerned largely with agricultural and mineral products, and are carried on most extensively in the coal and gas regions.
Drouths, which occur in all agricultural regions, have been most severe in Kansas in the following years: 1860, 1869, 1874, 1887, 1893, 1913. These years have marked into periods what has otherwise been a steady progress in agriculture.
The Agricultural Society, organized during the Civil War, was, in 1872, changed into the State Board of Agriculture. The Agricultural College, established during the Civil War, began active work along agricultural lines in 1873. There have been a number of organizations of farmers, most of them between 1870 and 1890.
Advancement in agriculture has been made in area under cultivation, selection of crops, improvements in machinery, better methods of tillage, and irrigation. The leading crops are now corn, wheat, and alfalfa.