The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-08-19
AS RejuvenatinE Force Throughout
the Land, Not Only the FarWers buE
All Classes to Be Benefited.

has been blessed with for MANY years.
far exceeding anything since the crop Of
1891 and outmeasuring even that bv
about 800, 900, 900 bushels. According
to the sharps who make estimates of
crops, it would REQUIRE 1850. OOO. 900
bushel baskets to hold the enormous
crop expected this year, while that of
1891, though much more bountiful than
any that had been harvested for long
time previously, amounted to only
2,06O, 154, 900 bushels. It may be that
the reader fancies he understands what
these figures mean, but the chances are
against it. Suppose that all the corn to
be harvested in 1896 were put into
bushe1 baskets, and then suppose the
baskets were ranged in a straight row.
Each basket would take up about Is
inches, so that $500 baskets could be
set along line mile in length It
would then require a straight stretch of
667 ,613 miles upon which to set all
these bushel baskets in line. Possibly
that looks like a big story, but you can
prove it for yourself by dividing the
total number Of bushels by the number
of bushels that can be set in mile
Assuming that you have gone through
found my figures to be correct, you
might next consider with me where
such a straight line could be found If
it were started at the earth and run off
into space it would reach a good deal
more than twice as far as from here to
the moon, which is but $40, 900 miles
away, according to the astronomers.
OF course the attempt to run the line
into space would not work and obvi-
ously it could not be laid out on the
little ball which we inhabit and on
which all this corn has been raised, for
| its circumference is only 81, 900 miles,
perhaps a little less. To simplify the
calculation we will assume the distance
to be just that. If lot of men were
set to work ranging the baskets in
| row at the equator, where the earth s
circumference is greatest, they would
/ find, after they had SO ranged 81, $50,
| 900 Of the baskets, that they had made
/ a complete circuit of the globe. Then
if they went on with the work, they
could repeat this circuit 26 times, MAX
ing 81 circles of bushels of corn in all,
and still have enough surplus baskets
to reach 10, 613 miles on the twenty
eighth circuit. AS each row Of baskets
would be IS inches wide, the total
width of the belt Of bushels thus created
would extend over 1876 inches or 4O1a
feet, where there were only 81 rows.
Along the 1868 miles, where there
would be % rows, the belt would be AZ
feet wide. Tt will readily occur to the
ingenious lover Of figures that still other
calculations might be made by which
IL. e
crop could be brought home to the mind
Of the reader. They need not be entered
into here, though if any reader is de-
sirous of exercising himself in this
direction, the writer would suggest that
a bushel of corn be shelled by hand, the
time required noted and the number of
centuries it would take one man to shell
this crop unaided by machinery. With
out having entered into the matter at
all it seems quite likely to the writer
that before the luckless individual who
had undertaken this task had finished
it, he would be of an age compared
with which that Of Methuselah would
be youthful in the extreme.
There are a number of other relations
in which to consider this crop which
require less tedious calculations. For
instance, if the farmers receive on an
average, either for tn corn or the pork
or beef into which it is transformed,
cash amounting to 80 cents a bushel,
the total amount of money to be turned
over to them for this crop will yield the
enormous sum of $7o5, 900, 000-that is,
about $40 for each individual in the
United States, reckoning the population