The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-08-19

STATE OOO I'm
vacant acre, Just to keep the ground
Clean" and says he will make up as
a farmer some of the profits lost as a
fruit grower.
Not only has every farmer in Kan
sas great corn this year, but perhaps
the proportion which will have to share
profits with a land lord is smaller than
in any of the other states. inquiries
made in several counties the past week
showed that less than 5 per cent OF the
cultivated land is owned by non-resl-
dents This line of investigation was
pursued in a dozen counties with rel
erence especially to the farms on which
the principal crop is corn. 1t was de-
nonStrated that most of these farms
are from eighty to 100 acres, and are
owned by the men who occupy them.
Here and there is a man who owns 800
or $40 acres, and who rents corn land to
the man who prefers to move often and
pay no taxes rather than become
landholder, though he must put two
fifths of the crop he makes into land
lords crib.
Eighty acres of corn to the farmer
seems to be the rule. One man in the
custom of the country can and ought
to put in, work and pick that amount
of corn. Thousands and thousands of
Kansas farmers have done it this year,
that is, up to the last stage, the pick
ing With half-grown boys to ride the
cultivators, some farmers have more
than eighty acres to their credit. ANA
occasionally a farmer with an inspira-
ton to be the talk of his neighbOrhOod
has managed single-handed to raise
more corn than any other man in the
township. In one locality there is
farmer who has made this year with
out help $50 acres of corn, and it is
mighty fine, too. The neighbOrS like to
tell strangers how he did it. This man
had horses to spare. He worked them
by relays. He rode his cultiVatOr and
a horses Z
round trOt. When one team tired this
hustler got down, hooked up" another
team and away he went. He cultiyat-
ed twenty-five acres a day
when I was a boy in Indiana" said
a travelling corn buyer, in telling how
things are done in Kansas, it was con-
sidered an excellent days worth to
gather fifty bushels of corn in a day.
Lots of Kansas farmers picked 40
bushels day after day. They have
peculiar kind of a hook, which is about
the only improvement over the old
fashioned peg. They reach for the ear
and as they wrench it off they give it
a turn with this hook and, stripped of
the husk, it goes flying into the wagon.
They make just one lick of the pick
ing and husking. Then, besides, the
horses are well trained. They never
stop, but keep moving right along the
row as fast as the man can pick, I'M
til they come to the end. The rows are
longer than they were in the older
states. A farmer picks right on from
a quarter to a half mile without turn
ing. That helps in making up the big
showing at the end of the day"
Frank NJ. Baker, the elevator man of
Atchison, came from Jacksonville, Ill,
in the heart of what made that com
mOnwealth the corn state of the union,
two generations ago. He has been
twenty years in Kansas.
THE farmers here" he said, "ship
out more corn in proportion to their
numbers than they did out of the corn
counties of Illinois, as 1 remember.
They produce more than the same
number did on a like amount of land
in central Illinois. 1t is the same with
wheat"
Much of this Kansas corn which
finds its way to market" continued Mr..
Baker, will be exported. It viii go
and by New Orleans. Our exports of
corn are growing heavier every year.
If there is any decline in prices by rea-
son of the unprecedented crop, the eff
feet will be to greatly stimulate ex-
porting. This corn crop Of Kansas will
be two or three years getting to mar
ket.''
Feeding cuts a notable figure in the
calculation of the profits which will ac-
crue to Kansas from the 300, 600 600
bushels and more of corn. A travelling
man made this rather startling state
ment a couple of days ago to a group
gathered in a hotel office:
The value of the corn crop of Kan
SaS will be more than that of all of the
gold and silver mined in the United
States this year"
And then he proved the assertion.
The lowest estimate put upon the crop
is the one just stated From that the
figures range to 400, 00O, 900 bushels. But
the travelling man worked on the min
imum basis. When the farmers came
to kingman, the Delavan merchant,
one day this week and asked him what
he would contract to give them for
their corn, he said promptly he was
ready to enter into agreements to take
1t at 15c busheI. Congressman Bower
sock, whose milling connections make
his opinion as to prices valuable, says
some corn may be sold by farmers at
15c, but he doubts if much will He
thinks the great bulk will bring more
Frank NJ. Baker, of the Greenleaf &
Baker company, which will handle
millions of bushels of the crop, makes
Tic the minimum price, with probabiIf-
ties that not a great deal will be sold
bushels the value of this corn crop to
Kansas is $4,000. 900. But that is far
below the actual amount that will be
realized. Half of the crop for the state
at large, probably more, will be fed to
cattle and hogs. A bushel of corn at 15c
featured into meat on the farm Then
a considerable fraction of the crop. per
haps- one-third, will go into cribs and
stay there until prices advance next
year, or even the year after. The
travelling man figured out a vaI11a of
Kansas for this year and his result
was not disputed.
Old Settlers Reunion.
Yates Center, Aug. 19.-The sixth an
nual meeting of the old settlers asso-