In the fall of 1929 a conference was held at the college in Manhattan to determine how best the 1930 train could serve as a fitting climax to the five-year effort. An ambitious program and itinerary to reach into more than half the counties in Kansas was planned. The route would differ from the 1927 schedule in that those towns which had morning stops would now be given an afternoon or evening stop, with the train starting from the southwestern part of the state.
Once again, county wheat queen contest would coincide with the train's visit in each of the fifty-nine counties as a sure-fire promotional feature. Several towns would have a demonstration train visit for the first time: Salina, the last stop, the train would be turned over to the Rock Island to run over that road's northwest territory, winding up at Hutchinson for the big statewide Wheat Queen Festival and Float Parade (backed by about three thousand dollars from the Hutchinson Chamber of Commerce).
Before the 1930 train could take place, however, the October crash of 1929 hit Wall Street. In the Santa Fe's Crop Report dated December 1, 1929, it was noted that "merchants report that few of their farmer customers were caught in the speculation jam. Town folks as a rule were the losers. Farmers are buying heavier on the retail market now than they did a year ago. Stock market losses, while hardships. Savings were reduce.but jobs were not disturbed." (55) The 1930 train ran as scheduled.
More women were involved in the 1930 "Wheat Special." The basic program at each stop started with a talk on the railroad's object in running the train, followed by a wheat champion's talk on "How I Grow Wheat," and a wheat belt talk of a more general nature followed that. A wheat belt kitchen demonstration, followed by a 4-H Club presentation, completed the program. Rock Island's Arthur Large was not happy about the Kansas itinerary for "it eliminated a number of points where we are doing an immense business, and where I am of the opinion we would probably have had as good or better attendance than at some of the points listed." (56) But inasmuch as he was not at the February conference in Manhattan, he was in no position to press the point.
Considerable discussion ensued about having the Union Pacific move the demonstration train from its endpoint at Salina, after its Santa Fe run, to Manhattan where the exhibits would be transferred to the Rock Island cars. Large assumed this would present no problem, as he noted to Jarrell that "it is customary practice for the various roads to handle same for each other without charge." (57) The Rock Island would have some men at Manhattan to help the professors switch the exhibits.
In April, Jarrel had an exceedingly difficult time rounding up cars to make up the train. Business Car 19 was not available since it was being sold to the 101 Ranch. Jarrell asked Houghton in Chicago whether the Santa Fe would consider using a Pullman car in addition to the business car (Car 19 had been an old "superintendent's car"), pointing out that this was what the Rock Island was doing. Houghton tried to discourage Jarrell from using a Pullman; it was more expensive (Santa Fe rented those by the day from Pullman). In late June, Car 19 was made available by Houghton. In a letter to one of the professors, Jarrell noted that it was not easy to route a crowd through an exhibit successfully, claiming that up to that point he had an accident-free record for forty-seven demonstration trains. (58)
In June the possibility of canceling the train because of economic retrenchment was first mentioned. (59) Jarrell, concerned that a cancellation would harm the cause for which the train was to be operated, reminded Houghton that the Missouri Pacific was operating a demonstration train just before the Santa Fe's that summer and the Rock Island would be operating one immediately afterwards. He felt that the Santa Fe should cancel only if the other two roads did also. While he voiced appreciation of the current company policy to reducing expenses as the mainstay of such a train was more important than ever to farmer morale.
Houghton had the final say, and much to Jarrell's relief, he supported continuing the train. It ran as scheduled, bring a final message to Kansas farmers to upgrade the quality of their wheat crop as well as diversify. (Since 1928 Kansas had been producing about two-thirds of the winter wheat crop in the county, though drought made the 1929 crop yield one of the worst in history. Acreage planted in 1930 was greater than in 1929 but less than what was planted in 1928.) (60)
Total attendance for the 1930 "Wheat Special" was 66,000 or an average of 1,833 persons per stop. Jarrell's assistant Hove recounted:
This was the fifth year of the College program for the wheat belt to improve the production and lower the cost of production of wheat. At the same time the College also stressed the importance of diversified farming, including dairying, poultry and hog raising and feeding of livestock for market. Southwest Kansas has profited greatly by this campaign for better methods in wheat growing and in other activities of the farm. there has been an enormous increase in the cultivated acreage and a remarkable change to better farm methods from the haphazard ways of sowing and caring for crops in earlier years. (61)
By this time the costs of running special agricultural demonstration trains had begun to come into focus. The Santa Fe Middle Division in Kansas reported cost for the 1930 train was $507.99 for the five days, the bulk of that sum being wages for the engine and train crews. After all these years, Jarrell was required to submit a financial report on a demonstration train! He included cost figures from the shop electrician and carpenter for work done to outfit the cars. Carpentry costs came to a little over four hundred dollars while the electrical costs were slightly more that one hundred dollars. The Panhandle Division's bill was $269.81, while the Western Division's came to $595.47 and the Little River Division's was $152.80. Jarrell figured the total cost at $2,951.60, or $210.86 for each of the fourteen days, or $80.94 per stop. The Santa Fe had by then operated forty-two demonstration trains in eleven states.
Dean Umberger summed up the results of the five-year program in a letter to Houghton dated August 19, 1930:
Prior to the organization of the program, an average of about 200,000 bushels of good seed wheat changed hands annually, while during the four years the program has been underway, there has been an average of about 500,000 bushels change hands each year. Further more, the acreage of land summer fallowed or partially fallowed in 1929 was about three times as much as in 1926. The acreage on which smut control was practiced was more than fifteen times great in 1929 as it was in 1925. In 1929, Kansas farmers practiced insect control on almost three times as many acres of wheat as in 1926. (62)
At the same time that livestock raisers were reducing expenses through improved methods, the results of diversification were showing up in an increase volume of dairy and poultry products, despite a nationwide drought that year, a drought unbroken until September of 1930. Thanks to the diversification plan promoted by the agricultural college and the railroad, no part of the Santa Fe territory in Kansas suffered a complete failure. As a further aid to its farmers, Santa Fe reduced by one-third the freight rates on livestock and feed in emergency cases, thus helping to save livestock.
A portion of Page 58-page 62` Volume 10 spring 1987 Number 1 Kansas History transcribed in altered form for the web by Russell Crump
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