MONDAY, AUGUST 19, 2002
STATE
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 19A
Ellis boy breaks 4-H mold
The Associated Press
LARNED — William Poland
II was 9 years old when he
started working in the black-
smith shop — too short to reach
the wooden handle to fan the
bellows.
That didn't stop the Ellis student, who's now 11 and has won prizes at county fairs for items he created in the 1860s forge at Fort Lamed National Historical Site.
Dodge City blacksmith Pete Bethke, a seasonal ranger at the fort, took William under his tuteage. He looped a rope around the bellows so the youngster could fan the coals in the forge.
William can reach the handle on his own now. And his skill with metal has grown, too.
"The teachers at school have told us William was born 100 years too late," said his mother, Karen.
A couple of years ago, William saw Bethke work his
wonders with hot metal and a hammer during a presentation at Hays.
"He stayed around and lisse ted to what I said," Bethke said. "He watched for a half-hour."
William and his father started making the hour drive from Ellis to
clothing and heavy aprons,' William said.
The forge at Fort Larned was built in 1867. Blacksmiths in those days made and repaired items for the Army as needed, except horseshoes. They earned between $70 and $100 a month.
As William's interest in black
"It takes patience to get things hot enough, and you have to keep working and working to finish what you've started."
started."
William Poland II 11-year-old Ellis student
Larned to attend classes in Bethke's workshop The historic atmosphere was a bonus.
smithing grew, he made an "S" hook to enter in the Ellis County Fair, as a "self-determined" 4-H project.
He starts with a metal rod, heats it in the forge and shapes it with a hammer on the nail.
"We had to wear authentic
hammer on the anvil
"It takes patience to get things hot enough, and you have to keep working and working to finish what you've started," he
When the metal is red hot, it's ready to work on. William said. If the metal is too hot, it will break
said.
Jill Stafford, an Ellis County 4-H agent with Kansas State University Research and Extension, said self-determined projects allow individuals to explore interests not covered by the traditional 4-H categories.
"4-H teaches kids to pursue their own passions." Stafford said. "William has found an interest and set out to be excellent. He's very knowledgeable about his blacksmithing, and very passionate about it."
This year, William entered a ram's head hook in the county fair.
"I split the metal down the middle, curled back the ends for the hooks and flattened it again forthe face." he said.
William has also made several decorative hooks for family use.
Much needed rain brings growth, death
The Associated Press
GARDEN CITY — Western Kansas badly needed the rain that recently soaked parts of the drought-stricken state, but the moisture also carried a danger.
The rain spurred the rapid regrowth of some plants, including milo and joonghssnang. But that rapid growth can also cause a toxic level of prussic acid, a derivative of cyanide, to build in the drought-stressed plants, said Ron Hale, an area livestock specialist with Southwest Kansas Research Extension Center.
Prussic acid poisoning is suspected in the deaths of a dozen or more cattle in two western Kansas counties in past weeks.
Roger Stockton, a crops and soils specialist for Kansas State University's Northwest Area Extension Office, said nine cattle had been recently found dead in Norton County. The cattle were grazing on drought-stressed milo, which led Stockton to suspect the deaths were caused by prussic acid.
Mean while in south west Kansas, a uncon-firmed number of cattle died in Com
The rapid growth can also cause a toxic level of prussic acid, a derivative of cyanide, to build in the droughtstressed plants.
manchie County. Those cattle were likely grazing on johnsongrass.
Hale said area cattlemens should watch for signs that drought-stunted crops have accumulated enough cyanide to build to toxic levels
Though Hale said prusic acid had been a "scattered problem" in past years, it's more of a concern this season, with its shortage of pasture grass for cattle grazing. More producers are forced to turn to any pasture they can find.
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