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Children in Russia hand-picked the first seeds of
this famous winter wheat for Kansas. They belonged to
Mennonite Colonies preparing to emigrate from the
steppes to the America prairies. A peace-loving sect,
originally from Holland, the Mennonites had gone to the
Crimea from Prussia in 1790 when Catherine the Great
offered free lands, military exemption and religious
freedom. They prospered until these privileges were
threatened in 1871. Three years later they emigrated
to Kansas, where the Santa Fe R.R. offered thousands of
acres on good terms in McPherson, Harvey, Marion & Reno
counties, and where the legislature passed a bill which
exempted religious objectors from military service.
Within a month after landing in New York the Mennonites
planted the red~gold grains their children had
selected. The harvest was the first of the great crops
of hard Turkey Red and its derivatives that have made
Kansas the Granary of the Nation.
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