The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1883-08-23
ATTENTION, EDITORS.

Wichita Eagle: The editors of the
Atchison Champion, Topeka Common
wealth and Emporia News will stand
upl Your education, gentlemen, has
been sadly neglected, lamentably so
touching the development and resources
of your own state. You, sirs. are slow
to learn that the Kansas of ten years ago
cuts but small figure in the Kansas OF
O-day and, in the face OF regularly pub.
lished and authentic reports, it seems
you can't comprehend the fact that for
eight years Sedgwick, Sumner, McPher-
son, CowleY and Butler counties have
led the entire state IN the production of
all the staples, and that they continue to
do SO. You, reverend segnIors, yet i'm
agine that Topeka is the practical center
Gated within five miles of the northeast
eighth of the state. And it is not only
yourselves, messieurs, who are SO dense
ly ignorant, but all your people, includ-
| ing the State Board of Agriculture. In
wheat, corn, oats, hogs and cattle,
your Kansas would make a sorrowful
showing. Now, last week the editor of
this paper introduced small item of
statistics of the corn crop of Sedgwick
county into an associate press dispatch.
The item was from the columns of the
Eagle, and was incorrect only that it did
not come up to the actual figures. The
item has been made the target for the
combined wit of the antIquat-
Ell trio whom we are now
addressing. You have our
sympathy in SO far as we once belonged
to your glucose society, and, also, for
ten years published paper in Northern
Kansas, at Burlingame. when we knew
as little of the state as you do to day.
The figures We gave in this dispatch
were of the easiest calculation. So far
as the conclusions reached, the merest
school boy ought to be capable of figur-
ing them out. Sedgwick county is near
ly thirty six by thirty-six miles square.
One half of this vast area is taken up 10y
the valleys of the Great and Little Ar
kansas and the Minnesota rivers
three of the finest rivers of the entire
state running through one county.
Sedgwick county has $4,000 acres OF
valley or bottom land, or more than
three times as much bottom land as any
other county IN the state. and it is not
| surprising, or should not be, that she is
| the greatest county IN Kansas. The
Eagle has been reiterating this simple
proposition for twelve years, but some
people, including the Editors addressed
and the state board of agriculture. seem,
| as yet, to fail TO catch on. Now, in ex-
act figures this county makes sworn re-
turns TO 1877 sol acres of corn for 1888.
To please these editors, and to satisfy
all doubIers we will put the average
down to forty bushels to the acre which
| gives 5,4S0,O40 bushels. As there are
100 ears of corn of an average length of
eight inches each, in a bushel, we have,
as the simplest process in figures, $780,
439, 400 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 News quotes two of our verses with
evident glee, and quotes them wrong.
We never claimed that there was any
poetry in those verses but the Newsman
will find in them more history and
prophecy than is usually put into like
space. The Champions very funny sug-
gestion of stringing the grains together
hit the mark much closer than he was
aware in all probability. IA to the
Commonwealth suggestion that the
stalks placed end TO end would not
reach the distance named, we have only
to 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 haxe several much
larger-and four stalks of eight feet each
to the hill, and 8 800 hills 70 the acre,
and let him figure out where such sim
gle field of stalks will reach.
) II is intimated above that the State
} Board of Agriculture knows of no coun-
| ty south of the main line of the Atchi
son, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad. Las
year, at the state fair. Sedgwick, Sum.
( ner and Butler made magnificent dis
2 plays, but the premium was awarded e
: q county whose productions for the veal
!, could have been loaded into few ricks
; If the society kicks at this we answer
+ by calling the peoples attention 70 the
: fact that in their latest report. issued las
/ week, in giving the list of fairs 70 b,
4 held this fall they leave out the Sedg
wick county fair. one Of the oldest as
soclations in the state. owning thu
n | grounds and extensive improvements
a and which society offers 5000 in casi
K premiums this year
n We expect 10 live great many year
Z YET, but We are satisfied the author o
! that dispatch viii not only be dead. bu
n forgotten, before the people Of North
!. eastern Kansas fully realize the rich
3 ness, wealth and magnitude OF the lowe
Arkansas valley.