The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-02-17
CORN Is REALLY KING
Whatever People May Think
About Wheat.
Mr.. C0BURN OF KANSAS
In Praise of Maize and the
State That Raises 1t.
MR. C0BURN OF KANSAS

Chicago, Feb. 1s.-The first corn conven-
today at the Great Northern hotel. About
80 delegates were present and more are
expected. Nearly all the middle western
states are represented, as well as few
Der of table delicacies are to be had for
engagements have been made for giving
practical demonstration of the value of
corn as a food. a kitchen having been
opened where bread, crackers and num-
of the far western commonwealths. Ar
the saking.
Mr.. F. D. Coburn, secretary Of the Kan
sas state board of agriculture, was chosen
chairman of the convention: He said:
THE object of our coming together is
TO confer about the ways and means by
which Americas permier crop and won
derful cereal may be better understood
and appreciated by the world at large.
We are satisfied that scarcely one person
in a hundred thousand connprehends the
magnitude Of its product, its money value.
its innumerable uses and possibilities, or
its wholesomeness as a universal food for
animal and man.
1.-The governments statistics show that
the acreage devoted 10 corn 10 have been
in recent years about 10 per cent greater
than the aggregate devoted to wheat.
oats, barley, buckwheat and potatoes; in
1896 the acreage was IS per cent greater.
We hear much of the wheat crop, and
the casual reader of the newspapers would
suppose there was no other which could
r1ghtuly be compared with it. Statistics,
however. show that during the last decade
thew alue. one year with another, OF our
corn crop has been nearly doubled-99 per
cent greater than that of our wheat. The
value of the corn crop in this decaed has
been about the same as the combined val
ues of wheat. oats. barley, buckwheat and
potatoes produced in the same period.
I'm the last three or four years we have
heard much of silver and its Importance,
and from the attention, oratory and print
ers ink devoted 10 it we might suppose
that ii was the one interest before which
all others paled and sank into insignih-
canoe. The average annual product OF
American silver mines, however. during
thte three years ending with 1895 was less
than SAC, 5000, 900, while the average value
of American corn for each of the last ten
years has been nearly S63600O,0 900, or more
than thirteen and a half times the value
of all our silver, which. in the minds of
som any, is endowed with well-nigh god
like attributes. Adding to the silver the
output of gold, we annually produce corn
worth more than seven times as much
as both thees precious and more coveted
metals.
II am proud to come from state re-
garded by many of the benighted and I'M
Sophisticated as something of desert.
which, while being transformed from "a
buffalo range into the wonderful garden
it is coming to be. has in twenty-five
wears produced corn that in the fields had
a value of more than S32s. 900 and in the
last two years had an output of S15'00O.o0o
bushels.
These few simple facts afford ample
Justification for our meeting here TO justi-
fy ways and means by and through
which corn shall obtain a wider recogni-
ton and the appreciation which its merits
should command"