Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1883-08-16
ATTENTION, EDITORS !

| 1ue euitOIs Ol Inc Atfulson thdMPapN,
Topeka Commonwealth and Emporia Ners
will stand up. Your education, gentlemen,
has been sadly neglected, iamentably so
touching the development aud resources Of
your own State. You, sirs, are slow to learn
that the Kansas OF ten years ago cuts but a
small figure in the Kansas OF to-day and,
10 the face OF regularly published and au-
thentic reports, it seems you can't compre-
bend the fact that for eight years Sedgwick,
Sumner, Mcpherson, Cowley and Butler
counties have led the entire State in the
production of all the leading staples, and,
| that they continue to do so. You, reverend
seigniors. yet imagine that Topeka is the
practical center of Kansas, when, in fact,
that town is located within five miles of the
northeast eighth of the State. And it is
not only, yourselves, messieurs, who are SO
densely ignorant, but all Of your people, in
GLIDING the State Board of Agriculture. In
wheat, corn, oats, hogs and cattle, take out
the counties named and your Kansas would
make sorrowful showing. Now, last week
the editor OF this paper introduced small
item OF statistics Of the corn crop OF Sedg-
wick county into an associate press dispatch.
The item was from the columns OF the EA-
GLE and was incorrect only in that il did
not come up to the actual figures. The item
has been made the target for the combined
wit of the antiquated trio whom we are
now addressing. You have our sympathy
in so far as we once belonged to your glu-
cose society, and, also, for ten years pub
lished paper in Northeastern Kansas, at
Burlingame, when we knew as little OF the
State as you do to-day. The figures we
gave In that dispatch were of the easiest
calculation SO far as the conclusions |
reached, the merest school-boy ought TO be |
capable of figuring them out. Sedgwick |
county is nearly thirty by thirty-six miles |
square. One-half OF this vast area is taken |
up by the valleys Of the Great and Little |
Arkansas and the Minnesota riyers-three |
Of the finest rivers of the entire State run
ming through one county. Sedgwick coun-
ty has has three hundred ana twenty-five |
thousand acres of valley or bottom land, or
more than three times a. much bottom land |
as any other county in the State, and it is
not surprising, or should not be, that she is
tue III hdHsas. ne
has been reiterating this simple proposition
for twelve years, but some people, includ-
ing the editors addressed and the State
Board of Agriculture, seem, as yet, TO fail 10
catch on. Now, in exact figures, this coun-
ty makes sworn returns to 1877 sol acres OF
corn for 1883. To please these editors, and
te satisfy all doubters we will put the aver
a A., |
gives 5,4s0.0i0 bushels. As there are 100
ears OF corn of an average length OF eight
inches each, in bushel, we have, as the
simplest process in figures, $3.50, s3S, 100
inches, which, reduced TO miles, will not
only reach TO London, but to the land where
Joseph and his brethren went for corn. In
more senses than one is the Nile of America
the palingenesis of Kansas. The Beps
quotes two OF our verses with evident glee,
and quotes them wrong. Weneyer claimed
that there was any poetry in those verses
but the Nevs man will find in them more his
tory and prophecy than is usually put into
like space. The Chdmpi0n's very funny
suggestion Of stringing the grains together
hit the mark much closer than he was aware
|
suggestion that the stalks placed end TO end
would not reach the distance named, we
have only 10 answer that the stalks of some
single fields of this county, placed end to
end, would reach that distance. Take a
200-acre feld-and we have several much
larger, and four stalks OF eight ieet each to
the hill, and 5000 hills TO the acre, and let
him figure out where such single field of
stalks will reach.
1t is intimated above that the State Board
of Agriculture knows OF no county south
of the main line Of the Atchison, Topeka a.
Santa Fe railroad. Last year. at the State
fair, Sedgwick, Sumner and Butler made
magnificent displays, but the premium was
awarded to county whose productions for
the years could have been loaded into q few
ricks. IL the society kicks at this we an
swer by calling the peoples attention TO the
fact that in their latest report, issued last
week, in giving the list of fairs to be held
this fall they leave out the Sedgwck county
fair, one OF the oldest associations in the
State, owning fine grounds and extensive
improvements, and which society offers
$1,000 in cash premiums this year.
We expect TO live great many years yet,
but we are satisfied the author of that dis
patch will not only be dead, but forgotten,
before the people OF Northeastern Kansas
fully realize the richness, wealth and mag
nitude Of the Lower Arkansas Valley.