Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1891-09-09


ton of all farm lands in Kansas for
1890 was s1os, ooo, 600; taking that a
about one-fourth of the real value we
have S672, 00o, 600 as the real or full
value of Kansas farm lands. Sixty mil
lion dollars, or the net proceeds of
Kansas farms this year, is, therefore,
about one-eleventh, or nine per cent,
on the full valuation of Kansas" The
foregoing estimates, it should be ex-
planned, are based on official statistics.
The acreage of wheat, rye, corn, oats,
max, broom corn and castor beans of
hcially reported is used The total
value Of the products of live stock, wool
clip. butter and cheese made, and
poultry. eggs and milk sold is given
the same as last year; also of white and
sweet potatoes millet, and Hungarian,
tame and prairie hay, but the value of
these products, however, for this year
doubtless will be considerably greater
than last year. If there is anything
in the declaration that alliance
plans for agricultural sub-treasuries,
for the issuance of money by
the government direct to owners of
homes at one or two per cent interest,
together with other projects for the
amelioration of the condition of man
kind, that these were the outcome of
discontent or misfortune, or both; then,
in view of the agricultural outlook by
the secretary of the Kansas board of
agriculture, summarized in the forego-
ing, the question arises whether the
growth of the movement is not likely to
be checked, to say the least?"
Official statistics should never be
used to prove condition of prosperity
when they can be analyzed for results
quite the contrary. 1t will not always
do to believe that the reader will not
figure something out for himself For
example, Mr.. Porter's census shows
that the entire population of Kansas
over year ago was 1, 423, 4s5. and had
increased in ten years 1921 per cent. !;
and it is now safe to put it at
1,5oO, 900. Mr.. Walkers census of eleven
years ago showed that there were 1885,
5s1 farms in Kansas. containing 10, 739, :
566 acres of improved land, and almost
exactly the same amount unimproved.
II the cultivated area has kept pace
with population, now, nearly twelve
years later, the increase has been near
so per cent, or, to bring it to round
numbers, 200, 600 farms, with 16, 600, 600
acres improved The fact must be kept
in mind that Kansas is an agricultural
state, with a private mortgage debt of
$232, 600, 600, S171, 900, 900 of which is on
farms, or over $40 per acre. With this
statement by way of premise, the Of
fetal figures will sustain the following
propositions:
l. That the gross output of Kansas
farms in a year of exceptional produc-
ton, and when the grain market is
stim dlated by a large foreign demand,
amounts to but S.. 6216 per acre for the
whole area of improved lands.
2. That after one-third is deducted for
necessary outlay for groceries, clothing,
new tools, ETC., which would be but
$3.50 for each average farm of 80 acres,
but $S75 per acre, or $500 each, would
remain as the salable product Of the
farms.
3. That the services of at least two
laborers on the average must have been
required to till, or manage, and market
the product of each farm; that the
wages rate of $3.50 per annum for each
laborer would consume the entire sur
plus, leaving a great many farmers
wives with nothing but their food and
very little clothes to compensate for
cooking, housekeeping, getting the
children off to school and adding to the
saleable product some millions in poul-
try, eggs, butter and milk.
4. That having reduced the output of
the farms to zero by these necessary
subtractions, it is not to be forgotten
that the live mortgages in the state
amount to about $3.50 per capita, which.
when spread over the farms, would
make an average of something like $3.50
for each family of the distinctively
agricultural people of Kansas, or say
$3.50, 900, 900, clearly inside figure, the
interest upon which, say SIS, 600, 900, is
deficit at the end of the years trans
actions.
s. That the statement given by Mr..
Mohler, indorsed by Bradstreet's, would
be incredible and discredited, as show
ing condition under which no people
could exist, were it not known that
many farmers in the United States real
ly give the labor of their lives for sim.
pie subsistence, and, as in this instance,
use what should be theirs for personal
compensation to pay taxes and usury,
fighting almost against hope in their
efforts to keep homes over the heads OF
loved ones.
These deductions are fairly made,
and in no instance excessive. To the
objection that two laborers to an
eighty-acre farm is too much, let ii
be understood that the rate of wages
is SO low that help at harvest and al
other times seems impossible for less.
1t is only by cheating their growing
boys of their lessons and games that
many farmers avoid the hiring of help.
By this resort the family owning a
home and out of debt might enjoy an
ideal income from the fathers labor OF
a dollar for each working day-but the
roast beef of the old agitators would
still be lacking. There is no margin
for reduction of mortgaged debt, and
it is only by discrediting Mr.. Mohler's
estimates as too low that ray of hope
is permitted to enter and cheer the
home of the average Kansas farmer
National Economist