Transplanted treasure
By Mark Lane
Submitted to Corner Post
During the latter half of the 19th century, agents of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad were offering tracts of prairie land near their rail line through Kansas. Of course, since the land was billed as fertile virgin real estate to eager farmers, the expectation was that harvests from the resulting crops would be shipped to market on the ATS&F railroad --- a win for all concerned. Among those moving into the area were Mennonite immigrants who had been driven from their farms in Russia for refusing to join the Czar’s army.
Mennonites embrace a simple life and are committed pacifists, so they sought a new land to begin anew. The challenge of turning the prairie into productive cropland did not frighten them. Their ancestors had done the same several times over in regions that are now parts of Germany, Poland, Ukraine and Russia. Before long, the Kansas prairie yielded a bounty, particularly wheat, which these plain people knew best.
Kansas winters can get mighty cold for long stretches and Kansas droughts seem to last longer than those of surrounding states. As a result, many crops suffered heavy damage or were lost entirely. But it was noted, first by neighbors of the Mennonites, then by regional grain marketers, and then by U.S. government officials, that the Mennonite wheat crops fared better than others nationwide.
When the Mennonite farmers began to plant their new fields in America, the seed they used was grain they had harvested from the land from which they’d been driven. It was unlike anything outside of that region of the world. Hardy enough to endure harsh winters and deep-rooted to survive drought, the new variety could be planted in the fall, lay dormant in winter, sprout in the early spring and be harvested before summer droughts and grasshoppers arrived. This hard red wheat also could be ground into a very high-quality flour. Cultivation of the hard red wheat variety spread, helping our nation earn the moniker “breadbasket of the world.”
In an ironic twist of fate, the farmers who were forced to leave their lands, buildings and equipment took with them only the essentials they could carry or wheel away. Any grain left behind was probably eaten by soldiers, livestock or wildlife. An unintended consequence was severe food shortages. Those same farmers, welcomed to America, came bearing the treasure that would vault U.S. agriculture to unimaginable levels and boost economic growth of the country. What might have been, we might wonder, if the plain people of the Russian steppes had not been forced to flee, and if they had not brought their treasured grain to America!
