You know all of those “boring” fields of wheat that people drive past on I-70? Did you know that a single acre of this precious grain produces enough bread to feed 9,000 people for one day? Or that Kansas farmers harvest enough wheat each year to feed everyone in the world for two weeks? Since becoming a state in 1861, farming has been a vital part of Kansas’s economy and work force, which can be seen in these 14 rare photos depicting the history of Kansas farming:

1. "Filling Silo 1913."
Flickr/frank thompson photos
2. "1913 Frank Hackney (my maternal grandfather) operates the manual washing machine while son Robert (my uncle) plays."
Flickr/frank thompson photos
3. "On verso, 'A Kansas Boy's farm. Well pumping 1300 gallons per minute (1915)."
Flickr/WaterArchives.org
4. "Kansas home of S.M. Sylvis and family, January 23, 1916."
Flickr/William Creswell
5. "Farmer at the auction. Oskaloosa, Kansas (1938)."
Flickr/C. Thomas Anderson
6. "Johnson Farm (1915)."
Flickr/WaterArchives.org
7. "At his home in the Black Jack hills of Chatauqua County, Kansas. The farmhouse had no electricity or running water in the 1950s, about the time this photo might have been taken, but there was no place my sisters and I would rather visit than Uncle Harry and Aunt Livona's farm."
Flickr/frank thompson photos

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8. "Kansas, Summer 1930."
Flickr/danzil raines
9. "Boys with Dogs in Wagons."
Flickr/Glen Van Etten
10."Indian farm in Delaware reservation Kansas 311 miles west of St. Louis Mo. c. 1867."
Flickr/Snapshots of The Past
11. "Kansas City KS 1910 MODERN Farmer They do things BIG around here Exaggeration."
Flickr/Don...The UpNorth Memories Guy... Harrison
12. "Farmers waiting for the auction to begin. Oskaloosa, Kansas (1938)."
Flickr/C. Thomas Anderson
13. "Robert & Betty Hackney on the family farm in Sumner County, Kansas. I would estimate this photo to have been taken in the early 1930's."
Flickr/frank thompson photos
14. "Henry T Davis 1960Farm Cherryvale, Kansas."
Flickr/sivaddoylf

For even more vintage Kansas, click on 12 Insane Things That Happened In Kansas You Won’t Find In History Books.

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