These days, everybody takes about "free range" chickens and the awesome brown eggs those heritage hens lay.

A look back a half century or so -- October of 1953 to be exact -- the headline was "Caging Layers Means More Profit," The accompanying article talked about the advantages of caging to the health of hens, the maintenance and cleanliness of the chicken house and the improved quality of the eggs.

Interestingly, an advertisement in the same issue touted DeKalb101 and DeKalb111 chicks to get those highly desirable white eggs. Hmmm. What will the chicken and the egg look like in another 60 years?

70 years ago

CHANGE ON CHICKENS: While today's conversation is all about "free range," back in 1953, the news was caged hens are healthier and lay higher quality eggs.

The European corn borer was a pest to be reckoned with in October of 1946. DeKalb went after the pest in a serious way -- aerial dusting with DDT. To improve seed corn quality, DeKalb dusted 6,000 acres of hybrid seed fields with the era's favorite insecticide. The company noted that one to three applications were needed depending on how extensive the borer infestation proved to be.

60 years ago

The fall field day at Ashland Agronomy Farm near Manhattan featured news on hybrid sorghum varieties and noted that Atlas was the best performer in demonstration plots.

Challenges included difficulty getting a seed set, cross-pollination by other plants and difficulty with lodging.

Researchers said other promising crops included sesame and guar, a legume from eastern Texas, sunflowers, castor beans, hybrid corn, and several varieties of biennial and annual legumes.

50 years ago

Musk thistle had been in Kansas only three years but the noxious weed moved with incredible speed to infest fields and pasture, especially rangeland.

The acreage in 1964 doubled from 1963. By 1966, the noxious weed division of the state board of agriculture said more than 80% of the infested acres were being treated, but the weed was still spreading.

20 years ago

For the third year in a row, Harry Neufeldt of Inman was the grand champion of the Wheat Show at the Kansas State Fair. His winning variety was 2137, new from K-State that year. For his prize, he got $300 iin prize money and a trophy from the Kansas Wheat Commission.

Goerzen is executive director of Old Cowtown Museum in Wichita. She shares a home with husband, Matt, four children, a dog and two cats.