The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1869-03-26
From the junction City Union.
KANSAS VS.. THE TEN BEST GRAIN
STATES.

Experience is more satisfactory than
theory. What has actually been done,
is the best criterion by which to Judge
what may be done. If railroad has
for period of years declared dividend
of twenty per cent, that fact is good
ground for the belief that it will do SO
in the ftAure, other things being equal.
There are thousands of persons i'll the
older States who wish to know the ag-
ricultural resources of Kansas. Can
there be better evidence upon that point
than the crops which Kansas has actual
ly raised? Ifthe soil is poor, if the eli
mate is unreasonable, if rain is scanty,
if any cause exists which interferes with
the farmer-the crops will show it.
But different men may have different
ideas as to what constitutes good crop.
A yield which might be extraordinary
upon poor land, will be far less than
ordinary OH good land. So that q stand
ard with which each person is acquaint-
ed is necessary in order to impart relia-
BILE information. For this reason we
present the yield per acre of ten we'll
known and long tried States. Massa-
chusetts is, for convenience, taken as
the representative of New England (;
while every farmer who may read this
article is familiar with the agricultural
vania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan,
Wisconsin, Iowa or Missouri. And by
comparing the yield of Kansas, State
he does not know, with the yield of
States which he does know, he can form
an opinion concerning the advantages
or disadvantages which Kansas offers to
the farmer. Again, there may be causes
which, in any given year, will make the
crops of New York or Massachusetts,
less than the average, while those of IL
linois will be greater; and ctce cerSd.
So that farmer is wise i'll asking for the
actual yield during several consecutive
years. ANY land which during five con-
secutive seasons raises five bushels of
corn per acre more than another piece of
land is the better farm. Again: one
section may produce large crops of corn,
but fail to Weld wheat or oats, in the
same proportion. Hence the adaptedness
of land for general purposes, will be best
shown by the actual yield of differe MT
grains. The following table exhibits
the average yield per acre, during pc
riod of six consecutive years, of corn,
wheat, rye, oats, barley, buckwheat and
hay, in Kansas and the ten States NAM
ed. The figures are taken from the Off
cial Reports of the u. S. Commissioner
of Agriculture for the years 1S62-3-4-5
e and Z. And we are perfectly willing
that any one shall test the correctness
of the averages by personal yerification.
A still greater period would have been
included, had we been able to procure
the official Reports for the previous
years. That for 1868 is not yet issued.
4 New York farmer will see that while
during these years his State averaged
twenty-nine bushels and seventy-nine
one hundredths of bushel to the acre,
Kansas, during the same years, averaged
thirty-seven bushels and sixteen hun
dredths of a bushels to the acre. In
other words, an acre in Kansas raised
seven and third more bushels of corn
each year.
AVERAGE YIELD PER ACRE. FOR SIX CoNsE-
CUT1vE YEARS, -1S62-1S67, INCLUSIVE, OF
THE ELEVEN LEADING AGRICULTURAL
STATES, AS OFFICIALLY REPORTED BY THE
UNITED STATES COMMISSIONERS OF AGRI-
CULTURE.