Survey Of Kansas Research Articles

The Effect of Personal and Farm Characteristics upon Grain Marketing Practices

AbstractA survey of Kansas, Texas, and Iowa agricultural producers was taken to examine the factors affecting their grain marketing practices. Sales indices models and models of qualitative choice are used to determine whether marketers' choices of cash market, forward contract, or futures and options oriented marketing practices are significantly affected by their personal and farm business characteristics. Results indicate that geographic location, farm size, grain enterprise specialization, farming experience, use of grain storage, and use of crop insurance have significant effects upon the respondents' choice of grain marketing practices.

Farmers Attitudes Concerning On-Farm Research: Kansas Survey Results

In 1993, a survey was mailed to elicit the opinions of active farmers about on-farm research (OFR), to determine their preferences for collaborative OFR, and their attitudes about research station‐based research. The samples were derived from three groups of farmers: those on a list kept by the Kansas Agricultural Statistics (KAS) office, members of the Kansas Farm Management Association (KFMA), and those on the mailing list of the Kansas Rural Center (KRC), an organization with an explicit commitment to sustainable agriculture. Our results found that most farmers engaged in OFR, either on their own initiative or in collaboration with outside groups. The majority of farmers expressed a desire to cooperate to a greater extent in OFR and a willingness to contribute resources and time to aid in that effort. Another notable result was the willingness of farmers to consult, and share information concerning OFR with other farmers. Differences were found between the KRC sample compared with the KAS and KFMA samples in that OFR related work was particularly important to farmers with an explicit sustainable agriculture orientation, who tended to be less convinced of the usefulness of research station‐based research and the research activities of commercial firms. Kansas Rural Center farmers wanted more say in the design and implementation of such OFR than did the KAS and KFMA farmers. Our findings support the conclusion that every effort should be made to involve farmers as partners in the research process rather than as someone for whom research is done.

Kansas 19th Century Geologic Maps

A series of maps depicting the geology of Kansas from 1809 to 1896 are discussed in relation to the changing ideas on distribution of stratigraphic units in the State. The 1809 US map by William Maclure uses A. G. Werner's classification and extends to southeastern Kansas. The series of geologic maps goes through a sequence of Wernerian, Lyellian, The Great Reconnaissance, The Western Surveys, Kansas' Own, and U.S. Geological Survey maps, to the map of Erasmus Haworth in 1896, which may be considered the first modern representation and the basis for the 20th century maps. The maps represent all or parts of Kansas depending on the original intent of the map and availability of information. The earliest maps are handcolored; later ones are color printed. Rock units recognized in the different compilations include the Lower Carboniferous (=Mississippian), Coal Measures (=Desmoinesian), Upper Carboniferous (=Missourian and Virgilian), Permian, Cretaceous, Tertiary, and Alluvial deposits. The first geological survey of Kansas of B. E Mudge in 1864 and the second of G. C. Swallow in 1865 did not result in published maps, but Mudge later published the first map of the State in color in 1875. With establishment of a permanent geological survey in 1889, the state survey has published a series of revised and improved maps, the latest edition being that of 1991.

Farm Operator Opinion and Agricultural Policy; Kansas Survey Results

Farm Operator Opinion and Agricultural Policy; Kansas Survey Results

Farm Operator Opinion and Agricultural Policy; Kansas Survey Results

AbstractResults from a recent survey concerning Kansas farm operator opinions on farm and public policy views are presented and analyzed. The survey results indicate general support for the current agricultural commodity programs. Contentious issues include conservation and environmental policies, production risk and crop insurance, and international trade. Multinomial logit (regression) analysis reveals statistical relationships between operator characteristics (e.g. age, education, farm size) and policy views. Self‐interest is found to be a determinant of operator opinion by sales class.

First Report of Chaetoceros muelleri Lemn. (Bacillariophyceae) from Kansas

Chaetoceros muelleri, a diatom genus previously unknown from Kansas, has been discovered in samples collected as part of the algal survey conducted by the State Biological Survey of Kansas. Chaetoceros is primarily a marine genus with only three species reported from inland, usually brackish, waters. The species reported from inland waters are C. elmorei Boyer (most recently reported from Devil's Lake, North Dakota and Quill Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada by Boyer, 1927), C. hohnii Graebner et Wujek recently described from the Great Lake Region (Wujek and Graebner, 1980), and C. muelleri reported from the Great Salt Lake by Felix and Rushforth (1979). Stoermer and Kreis (1978) also reported a Chaetoceros from the Great Lakes but gave neither a specific name nor a location. A composite sample (D. Reinke #654) collected with a nannoplankton net (10 Am mesh) from the spillway pool below Cedar Bluff Reservoir, Trego County, Kansas contained abundant Chaetoceros muelleri. The samples were prepared for LM (Light Microscopy) by placing several drops of concentrated sample on a glass slide and allowing the slide to air dry with gentle heat. The strewn preparations were mounted in Cumar-9 (8 g resin in 4 ml Toluene) and were examined with bright field and interference optics. The Kansas specimens of Chaetoceros muelleri were relatively small and lightly silicified; frequently the frustules appeared to have collapsed. Unlike most species in this genus the frustules were not united into filaments. The range in valve diameters was 4.5 pm to 20.0 um. The valve and girdle areas appeared unornamented in LM (Fig. 1); however, 7-8 costae per 1 tm have been reported for C. hohnii from TEM studies (Wujek and Graebner 1980). The setae were circular to subcircular in transverse section and variable in length 15-35 gim. The 2 setae were inserted at the mantle-valve junction at approximately a 170-180 angle. Resting spores were observed and found usually in the middle of a vegetative cell. The spores appeared heavily silicified and dissimilar to the vegetative cells (Figs. 2, 3). Chaetoceros muelleri was collected on 21 October 1982 and was the dominant organism in the sample. Other minor taxa present included: Entomoneis alata (Ehr.) Ehr., E. paludosa (W. Sm.) Reimer, Rhopolodia gibba Muell., Diatoma vulgare Bory, Syndra ulna (Nitz.) Ehr., Nitzschia longissima

Benjamin F. Mudge: The First Kansas Geologist

Benjamin Franklin Mudge (1817-79), originally from Massachusetts, was appointed State Geologist and Director of the First Geological Survey of Kansas in 1864. After failing to be reappointed in 1865 he became Professor of Natural Science at Kansas State Agricultural College, Manhattan, whose president, Joseph Denison, was an old friend and fellow Methodist. Mudge taught courses in all areas of science and spent his summers geologizing in western Kansas. An avid collector, he sent fossil specimens to Edward Cope, O. C. Marsh, and others. In the summer of 1872 he discovered a Cretaceous bird, Ichthyornis dispar, described by Marsh at Yale as the first fossil bird known to have teeth. In 1873 the KSAC regents replaced Denison by John Anderson, who dismissed Mudge and two others in February 1874 after they complained to members of the legislature about misuse of college funds and tried unsuccessfully to defeat legislative confirmation of some of the regents. Mudge then was employed by Marsh to collect fossil vertebrates (1874-77). Assisted by Samuel Williston and other former students, he sent to Marsh a large number of specimens of marine reptiles, pterodactyls, and birds from the Cretaceous beds of western Kansas. In 1877 he was sent to Colorado, where he supervised the quarrying of dinosaur bones at Cañon City. Strongly religious and a staunch opponent of slavery and alcohol, Mudge was regarded highly as a teacher and collector. He published in 1875 a description of the geology of Kansas which contained the first geological map of the State. He also was cofounder and first president of the Kansas Academy of Science.

Finally Persuaded: The Creation of the 1889 Geological Survey of Kansas

While much has been written about the State's first two geological surveys in 1864 and 1865, much less information is available concerning the establishment of the current incarnation of the Geological Survey at the University of Kansas in 1889. This paper briefly traces the events leading to the Survey's recreation: legislative attempts at a survey in the 1880's, arguments made for and against a survey, and the circumstances leading to the Survey's placement at KU. The Kansas Academy of Science particularly was active in the battle for a survey, and appealed to State pride and practical benefits as reasons for a survey's creation. The Academy finally succeeded in 1889, probably in part because of a burgeoning minerals industry in the State. In addition, a change in the KU budget allowed the Legislature to establish the Survey at KU without appropriating additional funds for its operation. No appropriation was made for the Survey from 1889 to 1895, although some field work was undertaken. This paper also explores several reasons that the Survey was placed at KU rather than Kansas State College.

Survey of Kansas Cow-calf producers (1983)

Survey of Kansas Cow-calf producers (1983)

Kansas survey: What do commercial cow-calf producers consider when buying herd sires? (1982)

Recently, Kansas State University surveyed the factors a commercial cowman considers when he buys Angus, Simmental, or Hereford bulls. A mail survey of the customers of 29 purebred breeders of those three breeds was conducted. We attempted to include a reasonable cross section of both performance and show-ring-oriented breeders. A total of 1,447 survey forms were distributed and 613 (42%) were returned.

Nomenclatural Changes among Some Kansas Diatoms

Recent work on the diatoms of Kansas, as part of the algal survey initiated by the State Biological Survey of Kansas in 1977, has revealed several nomenclatural problems. Six generic transfers, two in the genus Melosira to Aulacosira and four in the genus Amphiprora to Entomoneis were deemed necessary in the course of these studies and are reported as follows: Aulacosira granulata var. angustissima forma spiralis (Hust.) comb. nov.; A. ikapoensis var. minor (Choln.) comb. nov.; Entomoneis paludosa var. duplex (Donkin) comb. nov.; E. paludosa var. hyperborea (Grun.) comb. nov.; E. paludosa var. borealis (Grun.) comb. nov.; E. paludosa var. punctulata (Grun.) comb. nov. Preserved samples from which material was obtained for this study are on deposit at the State Biological Survey, Lawrence, Kansas. Voucher slides have been deposited in the General Collection, Diatom Herbarium, The Academy of Natural Sciences, 19th & The Parkway, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103. Recent studies on the morphology of various diatoms previously assigned to the genus Melosira Ag. (e.g., Crawford, 1979) have essentially confirmed the earlier speculations of Ross and Sims (1973) that the M. granulata group should be removed from Melosira and placed in a separate genus. Simonsen (1979) elected to place this group in the genus Aulacosira (as Aulacoseira ) Thwaites and designated A. italica (Ehr.) Simons as the type of the genus. The Aulacosira group is characterized by having all loculi with their foramina on the outside of the value and the cribra on the inside. While Simonsen (op. cit.) included 59 taxa in his revision, he failed to include Melosira granulata var. angustissima forma spiralis Hust. This form was reported as occurring in Kansas by Williams et al. (1978) and erroneously attributed to O. Miiller. It is therefore appropriate to initiate the following transference:

Aeromagnetic survey of Kansas

An aeromagnetic survey of Kansas, conducted by the Kansas Geological Survey during the past 5 years, has been completed. The total intensity magnetic field contour map, along with spectrally filtered versions, reveals largescale magnetic patterns, which we correlate with basement composition and paleotectonics.A second vertical derivative map clearly demonstrates that the southern part of the Proterozoic Central North American Rift System (CNARS) does not terminate in central Kansas but continues along a southwestern trend to at least the Oklahoma border. Some of the current seismicity within the state appears to be correlated with reactivated faults within the CNARS.Apparent in northeastern Kansas is the presence of numerous highly magnetic shallow granitic plutons, known from drilling to be approximately 1350 m.y. old, embedded within the older, 1600—1700‐m.y.‐old mesozonal granitic crust.The total intensity magnetic field map reveals a series of magnetic lows trending approximately east‐west across the state. These may correspond to a paleoplate boundary between the older granitic terrane to the north and the younger, 1400‐m.y. rhyolitic and epizonal granitic terrane to the south.

Enteromorpha, a Marine Alga in Kansas

Enteromorpha Link is primarily a marine genus that has been occasionally reported from inland salt springs and some inland lakes with high salt concentrations (Collins, 1909; Smith, 1950). In contrast to marine species, the mature thalli of most freshwater Enteromorpha consist of long, usually branched, hollow tubes with a wall one cell in thickness (Fig. 1). Only two species of Enteromorpha have been previously reported from Kansas, each on the basis of a single collection. The first was E. intestinalis (L.) Link from Cheyenne Bottoms in Barton County, by McFarland et al. (1964) and the second was E. prolifera (Muell.) Ag. from the Big Salt Marsh part of the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge in Stafford County, by Reinke (1977) and is now referred to subsp. prolifera. Recent reports of Enteromnorpha from Oklahoma (Vinyard, 1966; Pfiester et al., 1976; Conner et al., 1978) exemplify that the inland distribution is poorly known. A total of three species (E. compressa (L.) Greville, E. torta (Mert) Reinbold and E. flexuosa (Wulfen ex Roth) ag. [=E. prolifera var. tubulosa (Kuetz.) Reinbold] have been reported from Oklahoma each on the basis of a single collection. However, Pfiester et al. have suggested that Enteromorpha is probably more common in inland areas than previously believed. E. prolifera subsp. prolifera has also been collected in Nebraska (Keith County, 7 mi NE Ogallala below Lake McConaughy, 20 Sept. 1978 by R. Brooks s.n.). Fieldwork by the State Biological Survey of Kansas has added 16 additional collection sites for E. prolifera (Muell.) Ag. subsp. prolifera in Kansas and supports the suggestion that Enteromorpha is more common than would be indicated by the algal literature. E. prolifera subsp. prolifera differs from E. compressa, E. torta and E. flexuosa by having a smaller cell size (9-18 x 6-12 g) in the mature thallus, square to rectangular cells, and the cells arranged in distinct longitudinal rows. The new specimen records from Kansas are: 1) Dry Lake, Scott County, 6 mi S and 8 mi E Shallow Water, 19 July 1977, D. Reinke #53; 2) Crooked Creek, Meade County, 17?2 mi S and 712 mi E Meade, 3 Aug. 1979, D. Reinke #83; and 14 mi S Meade, 23 Sept 1980, D. Reinke 440; 3) a spring fed marsh, Pratt County, ?2 mi N Cario, 30 April 1978, D. Huggins and P. M. Liechti #3; 4) Big Sandy Creek, Clark County, 10 mi S Ashland, 23 Sept. 1980, D. Reinke #443; 5) Salt Creek, Rice County, 3 mi S Raymond, 21 Oct 1980, D. Reinke #469; and 6) Willow Creek, Wallace County, SE 4, Sec 12, T13S, R42W, 9 Jul 1980, McGregor #31829. Dry Lake is a stilling

Survey of Kansas cow-calf producers (1979)

Survey of Kansas cow-calf producers (1979)

New Herpetological Records from Kansas

The second known breeding site in Kansas of Notophthalmus viridescens louisianensis (Wolterstorff) is recorded from Cherokee County; Pseudacris s. streckeri Wright and Wright, captured in Harper County is a new state record for this chorus frog; an adult male Eumeces septentrionalis obtusirostris Bocourt, taken in Clark County represents the eighth known occurrence of this skink in Kansas, and is an extension of range; an unusual aggregation of the New Mexican blind snake, Leptotyphlops dulcis dissecta Cope, os reported from Clark Countyp and the third authenicated record of the western cottonmouth, Agkistrodon piscivorus leucostoma Troost is represented by an adult male taken in Montgomery County. Trans. Kansas Acad. Sci., Vol. 81:1. Extensive field work by various researchers in Kansas in 1977 resulted in several new herpetological discoveries for the state. Some of the more notable records are reported with comments as follows: Notophthalmus viridescens louisianensis (Wolterstorff) On 21 July 1977 four larval central newts (KU 174691) and one eft-stage subadult were collected at a small farm pond 7.2 km S and 1.4 km E of Galena, Cherokee County, Kansas by Jan P. Caldwell (formerly of the State Biological Survey of Kansas). A more detailed habitat description of the collection site is found in another paper by one of us (Rundquist, 1977). These records establish the second known breeding site for N. v. louisianensis in the state, and the second locality in Cherokee County (Ashton, 1974). Pseudacris s. streckeri Wright and Wright Two specimens of Strecker's chorus frog (KU 174370-371) (Fig. 1) were taken at 2 km W and 0.9 km S of Anthony, Harper County, Kansas, on 30 April 1977 by three of us (ES, DG, and PG) and Ed Byrne. The specimens were taken from a breeding chorus at a small pond near Bluff Creek. Additional information on the collection is offered by Stegall (1977). Additional field work by EMR, Kelly Irwin, and Richard Plumlee

The Discovery of Athyrium filix-femina and Other Interesting Pteridophytes in Southeastern Kansas

In August, 1976, the junior author and a field team of biologists from the State Biological Survey of Kansas discovered a lush, wooded ravine in south central Chautauqua County near the Oklahoma state line (Fig. 1). The area is part of the Chautauqua Hills and represents the northern limits of the Texas Biotic Province. The Chautauqua Hills are characterized by low, rolling hills capped with sandstone and covered primarily with Post Oak (Quercus stellata) and Blackjack Oak (Q. marilandica), which form an oak savannah. Calcareous rocks are some-

Towns and Minerals in Southeastern Kansas: A Study in Regional Industrialization, 1890–1930. By John G. Clark. Lawrence, Kansas: State Geological Survey of Kansas, 1970. Pp. xi, 148. $0.55.

Towns and Minerals in Southeastern Kansas: A Study in Regional Industrialization, 1890–1930. By John G. Clark. Lawrence, Kansas: State Geological Survey of Kansas, 1970. Pp. xi, 148. $0.55. - Volume 33 Issue 4

Vertical Variations in the Chemical Composition of the Cottonwood Limestone Bed in Riley County, Kansas

Much work on the chemical analysis of beds of limestone in eastern Kansas has been done by Russell T. Runnels and co-workers (5) of the State Geological Survey of Kansas. Donald L. Graf (1) formerly of the Illinois Geological Survey and now of Harvard has analyzed samples of limestone in many parts of the world including Kansas. Their work and most other work has been done on composite samples (channel analysis). Very little or no work appears to have been done on vertical variations in the chemical composition within a unit of limestone.

The Application of Geology to the Discovery, Exploitation and Origin of Coal

The application of geology to the discovery, exploitation, and origin of coal is, in general, similar to that of any other mineral resource. Perhaps, in-so-far as Kansas is concerned, applied to coal the application may be somewhat simpler. For the most part my experience with coal has been confined to inventory studies sponsored by the State Geological Survey of Kansas. The object of these studies was to ascertain the state's coal reserves involving thus the distribution of the coal, its thickness, depth to coal, character of overburden, physical and chemical properties of the coal, amount mined, estimating the reserves classified as measured, indicated, and inferred, and calculating the amount of recoverable coal. Currently coals of six groups of rocks have been inventoried and published by myself (Schoewe, 1944, 1946, 1951, 1952, 1959) and coals of another group by other staff members of the Survey (Bowsher and Jewett, 1943). Inventory studies of the coal require first of all a careful mapping of the coal. Mapping is dependent upon a knowledge of the presence of outcrops and data furnished by drill records of one kind or another. Finding of outcrops of coal in the coal country of Kansas, especially southeastern Kansas, is not quite as simple as one might wish for. The reason for this is twofold, first, the Kansas coals on the average are thin-one to two feet thick with occasionally a thickness of three feet. Coals of such thicknesses can and are very readily concealed by slump, dense vegetation, and other natural causes. Second, the coal country of southeastern Kansas is characterized by low topographic relief which is, in general, not conducive for the finding of outcrops of thin coal. The application of geology to the discovery of coal therefore resolves itself into two considerations, namely (1) study of topography, and (2), study of stratigraphy of the coal units.

The Kansas Academy of Science and the State Geological Survey of Kansas

The first state geological survey of Kansas came into existence on February 10, 1864. It terminated on February 28, 1865. A bill authorizing a second state geological survey was approved by Governor Samuel J. Crawford on February 11, 1865. This survey, headed by G. C. Swallow, formerly the first state geologist of Missouri, was for the purpose of completing the geological survey started by Benjamin Franklin Mudge. The second survey, like the first, lasted for only one year. Both Mudge and Swallow were charter members of the Kansas Natural History Society, the forerunner of the Kansas Academy of Science. Mudge, not only played an important role in the establishment of the Kansas Natural History Society, but was also its first president in which capacity he served in 1869, 1870, 1879, and 1880. Although the State Legislature of 1866 adopted a resolution to extend the surveys to the one-hundredth meridian of longitude, the survey died a natural death due to the failure of the Legislature to appropriate funds for the maintenance of the survey. Between 1866 and 1895, Kansas was without a state geological survey. It may seem strange to the 1960 generation of Academy members, who are fully aware of the importance that a geological survey plays in the economic development and growth of a state, that there was so much difficulty for so many years in obtaining a geological survey. There were several factors responsible for the 1866-1895 hiatus. In the first place, Kansas in 1864-1865 was a new state with very limited financial resources; in the second place, the framers of the bill establishing the first two gological surveys expected entirely too much of the survey, especially on a limited budget. The appropriations of the first survey amounted to $3,500, whereas, $7,500 was allotted to the second survey. Thirdly, it was expected that the survey of the state would be completed in one year's time, an impossible and unrealistic task as is attested by the fact that the present State Geological Survey with a professional staff of 50 people and operating on an annual budget of more than one-half million dollars, has not completed the task in all the years since 1895. Finally, there was also, especially in the early years, a strong suspicion that the survey was not practical, but that it was to be organized primarily for the