frontage had been assessed, and deducting also the average increase of land values throughout the entire district due to other causes and other improvement in the same district, a net gain to the property owner was shown of practically fifty per centum of the value of the property. On some boulevards the gain has averaged from 200 to 500 per centum, the greater portion of such gain being directly attributable to the establishment of the boulevards. In the same manner but in a lesser degree the parks have enhanced values, proving that the construction of Kansas City's park and boulevard system was a profitable industry for the taxpayer without reference to its artistic, moral and social benefits. This fact is now universally recognized by citizens who are unanimous in their approval of this great expenditure."

It is an established fact that during the past ten years many thousands of people have been attracted to Kansas City, as a place of residence, by her fine exhibition of civic spirit, the most conspicuous product of which is her magnificent parks and pleasure grounds. Many men who have been successful in business in town and village within the territory tributary to Kansas City have felt the spell of her influence, and when retiring from active labor have built beautiful homes along the boulevards and settled here to rear and educate their children. Other thousands among the industrial classes have likewise come, attracted by the same advantages, to seek employment here and swell the population.

Kansas City's population increased 51.7 per cent in the decade 1900-1910. Of twenty-five cities this community ranks third in the percentage of increase. The other two are Detroit and Denver. These twenty-five cities constitute a class having over 100,000 population. The significant deduction warranted by the census returns is that the cities which have done most to improve conditions of living have gained most in numbers. Kansas City leads all other cities in her park and boulevard development during the decade and is one of the first three of these twenty-five cities in respect to gain of population. Both Denver and Detroit have been, since 1900, notably active in city planning and accomplishment. Cleveland and Chicago are other cities which have been made more attractive as places of residence and Chicago and Cleveland are of the marked gainers in growth. On the other hand, the larger cities which fall below twenty per cent increases in population are with very few exceptions the laggards in the betterment of residential conditions. A canvass of Kansas City's newcomers since 1900 would show that the park and boulevard system had been a strong factor in the growth of population.

Park and Boulevard Economies.

Economies have been practiced at every stage of the park and boulevard development. Cliff Drive was limited in construction to a serviceable roadway. When it was proposed to "improve" the drive with some Italian architecture at certain outlook points, the suggestions were vetoed. The park board accepted the theory of the landscape architect that the Cliff Drive and the paths alone should be man's handiwork; that all else along the drive should be as nature made it. For protection of vehicles a rail was stretched along the outer edge of the drive, intended to give place in time to a low, rustic stone wall in strict keeping with the rock-strewn slope below.

The practice of economies has led naturally to a great diversity of park conditions. When the visitor has traversed Gillham Road he has no conception of the surprises which await him in the miles of the Paseo. North Terrace is as dissimilar as possible from West Terrace. One high point of observation is the climax of interest in many park systems. Kansas City has a dozen of these points of view and no two of them are to be compared with each other.

Observation Park is only two and one-tenth acres, but it has been developed to present a perfect panoramic spectacle of the entire southwestern section. The path encircles the reservoir and to every step forward a new scene presents itself.

Penn Valley Park possesses a bold promontory overlooking the new Union Station and the terminal system following the valley between the North and South Sides. From another point in Penn Valley Park there is a fascinating view across a little lake to the business part of Kansas City.

The West Terrace presents half a dozen different views of the railroad yards, the packing houses, the stock yards, the great industries on both sides of the Kaw River, with the other Kansas City spread over the Kansas hills beyond.

From North Terrace are to be seen some of the finest stretches of the Missouri River where it comes down from the north, makes its mighty sweep at the feet of Kansas City and disappears in a valley eastward as fertile as the Nile. Thomas H. Benton, having in mind this great elbow of the Missouri, said: "There is the point that is destined to become the largest city west of St. Louis." The destiny is being fulfilled.

CHAPTER XXVII.

PRODUCTIVE MISSOURI.

The Rise of the Rooster-Evolution of a $50,000,000 Industry-When a Hen Was Only a Hen-The Coop Car and the Central Plants-Science of "Extras" and "Seconds"— Missouri Feed Lots-Corn on the Hoof to Market-Latter Day Economies-The Place to Kill the Porker-Make Beef of the Steer Where He is Primed-The Model Stockyards of St. Joseph-Packing Plants Up-to-Date-Fine Art in Poultry Handling— Rules of Cleanliness and Economy-The Awakening of Rufus Hatch-"Cattle Paper" -Honor among Live Stock Men-A Kansas City Illustration-Pioneer Allen's Recollections "Missouri Bacon"-Country Curing Processes-Dr. Waters on the State's Great Problem-Hardeman's Garden-Henry Shaw on Conditions of ClimateGeorge Catlin's Word Picture of Missouri-"Bee Trails"-The Myth of "the Sunk Lands"-A Redeemed Section-Champ Clark's Treat-Some Famous Fruits-The Ben Davis and Its Habitat-Pioneer Farming-The Once Despised Prairies-Experimental Farming in 1830-40-What Major Higgins and Rev. Henry Avery Demonstrated— How William Muldrow Turned the Sod-Missouri Valley Opportunities-Secretary J. Sterling Morton on Normal Industries-Missouri at the Columbian Exposition.

It is not generally known that the product of the Missouri hen last year was more than double the product of all the wheat produced in the State. It is not generally known that the poultry output was worth twenty-five times the entire cotton crop of the State and fifty times the potato crop. It also was twelve times as large as the vegetable and truck garden output of the State. Yet, with all these glowing figures, the Missouri hen has received less attention than these other industries, although she has given the State more advertisement.-Jewell Mayes, Secretary, State Board of Agriculture, 1914.

There is no better soil than that of Missouri valleys. There is no finer climate than that of Missouri plateaus. When one has traveled from Alexandria on the Nile-like delta of the Des Moines to Cowskin Prairie just below Neosho and from the Platte Purchase to Pemiscot he has seen a diversity of farming conditions such as no other commonwealth between the oceans can duplicate. In range of natural resources and natural advantages Missouri is incomparable.

Calumet Township, where the Bankheads, descendants of Thomas Jefferson and of Pocahontas settled seventy-five years ago, is the southeastern corner of Pike County. It borders on the Mississippi River and extends westward over the bottoms and up the rolling slopes. The people who live there are very proud of Calumet. They say that during a national campaign Thomas B. Reed of Maine rode through on a railroad train, and surveying as much of Calumet as he could see from a car window, voiced his admiration:

"Great heavens! Such a country! Such lands! Why, if we had such soil back in New England we would sell it by the peck for seed."

Champ Clark told this story in a speech on the floor of the House of Representatives, and Speaker Reed did not deny it.