The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1901-08-05
hint FOR WILSON
The Secretary Should Study Up
on Kansas.
Called Down by Mr.. COburn For
His DerogatOry Statements.

F. D. Coburn, secretary of the state
board of agriculture has given out the
following interview:
Il have been amazed to see in the
daily newspapers under a Washington
date line a statement that Secretary
Wilson of the United States depart
ment of agriculture is starting on
visit to observe conditions in the corn
belt which he is careful to define as
Iowa. Illinois and Missouri Also he
refutes the contention that Kansas and
Nebraska are included, for conditions
there can never be counted on. The
crops of those states are too 1ncer-
tain
Mr. Wilson is a man of high charac-
ter, great intelligence. and with every
faculty for information about agr1cul-
tural conditions, and I cannot credit
him with such a grotesque perversion
of truth, lack Of knowledge, or willing
ness to ignore the agricultural posi-
bilfties and performances of two states
that his own reports show as rightfully
standing among the foremost. NO hon
est man qualified to teach district
school would risk his reputation for in
telligence by giving utterance to any
such balderdash.
-'TEe reports of Mr.. Wilson's depart
ment for the past five years show the
foremost corn producing states of the
world Gin aggregate yield) to be Iowa,
Illinois, Nebraska, Kansas and Mis-
souri,, in the order named, and that for
ten years past, save one these same
states have led in producing the king
of cereals.
..They reveal that in the past five
years young semi Kansas once
ranked third crowding the old Iowa for
second place, surprising both Missouri
and Nebraska Kansas in the same
period ranked fourth once and fifth in
this galaxy of corn stars three times
while excluded Nebraska has a record
as good or better having distanced Il
linois in 1896 and Iowa in 1897 leaving
reliable Missouri to occupy fourth
place three years and fifth place two
years in the five. Nebraska excelled
Missouri in 1892, 1896, 1897, 1898 and 1900
Kansas raised more corn than Missouri
in the years 1896 and 1899, and in 1896
harvested a crop three times greater
than that of Iowa in 1894. In fact kan
sas in 1896 grew almost as much corn
as reliable Iowa and Illinois combin-
ed in 1894 and in the past five years,
according to Mr.. Wilson's reports, the
aggregate of corn produced in Kansas
has exceeded that of Missouri by near
Is 100 000 bushels
1.-THE corn crop of Kansas in one Of
the past ten years was greater than
that of Iowa in four different years of
the same period; greater than that OF
Illinois in seven of the years; greater
than Nebraskas in nine of the years.
while Missouri's nearest approach in
the decade fell nearly 10000, 600 bushels
short of being its equal
IF the lands of the central part of
Kansas belong to semi-arid classiff-
cation it is lamentable that there are
not larger areas in the United States
than can properly come under the same
classification, for the particular portion
of the Sunf1ower state as described
constitutes what is probably by odds
the most proftably productive wheat
field in the world, the fiours from which
are unsurpassed by the product from
wheresoever. all of which is generally
we'll known
s.This part of the state is the portion