From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for June 22, 1971:

Claude King, plant pathologist from Kansas State University, was visiting Lawrence with other agriculture specialists to inspect several Lawrence area corn fields. A serious outbreak of Southern Corn Leaf Blight had been discovered in about a dozen fields in the Wakarusa Valley, with “some slight indication” of the infection in the Kaw Valley as well. The blight had gotten its start in Florida and had been carried northward by the wind in 1970, when it had caused a 15 per cent reduction in the U.S. corn crop. Earl Van Meter, Douglas County extension agent, said that there had been 28,000 acres planted to corn in Douglas County in the previous year.