With the saccharine variety of sorghum, which increased greatly in the same period, this grain is replacing Indian corn. Oats are the third great cereal crop, the yield being 24,780,000 bushels in 1906 and 27,185,000 in 1909. Alfalfa showed an increased acreage in 1895-1904 of 310.8%; it is valuable in the west for the same qualities as the Kafir corn. The hay crop in 1909 was 2,652,000 tons. Alfalfa, the Japanese soy bean and the wheat fields--which furnish the finest of pasture in the early spring and ordinarily well into the winter season--are the props of a prosperous dairy industry. In the early 'eighties the organization of creameries and cheese factories began in the county-seats; they depended upon gathered cream. About 1889 separators and the whole-milk system were introduced, and about the same time began the service of refrigerator cars on the railways; the hand separator became common about 1901. Western Kansas is the dairy country. Its great ranges, whose insufficient rainfall makes impossible the certain, and therefore the profitable, cultivation of cereals, or other settled agriculture, lend themselves with profit to stock and dairy farming. Dairy products increased 60.6% in value from 1895 to 1904, amounting in the latter year to $16,420,095. This value was almost equalled by that of eggs and poultry ($14,050,727), which increased 79.7% in the same decade. The livestock interest is stimulated by the enormous demand for beef-cattle at Kansas City. Sugar-beet culture was tried in the years following 1890 with indifferent success until the introduction of bounties in 1901. It has extended along the Arkansas valley from the Colorado beet district and into the north-western counties. There is a large beet-sugar factory at Garden City, Finney county. Experiments have been made unsuccessfully in sugar cane (1885) and silk culture (1885 seq.). The bright climate and pure atmosphere are admirably adapted to the growth of the apple, pear, peach, plum, grape and cherry. The smaller fruits also, with scarce an exception, flourish finely. The fruit product of Kansas ($2,431,773 in 1899) is not, however, as yet particularly notable when compared with that of various other states. According to the estimates of the state department of agriculture, of the total value of all agricultural products in the twenty years 1885-1904 ($3,078,999,855), Indian corn and wheat together represented more than two-fifths (821.3 and 518.1 million dollars respectively), and livestock products nearly one-third (1024.9 millions). The aggregate value of all agricultural products in 1903-1904 was $754,954,208.