American Agriculture History Minute: Kansas Becomes the Wheat State

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

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

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.