The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1904-08-15
WHERE CORN IS KING
AMAzNG PRAIRIE MONARCH
MYTHS LEGENDS ATTEST IMPORTANCE
OF THIS CEREAl-How A
-. - 49,

/ bin and II is the only one we have
been able to find In eastern Kansas.
This specimen was secured tn one OF
the suburbs from q stalk which grew
out of the mortar in a brick wall. Its
surroundings and the fact that the
stalk was twice struck by lightning as
1t lowered above the building probably
accounts for the dwarfed appearance
OF the ear"
Then, Of course. there is the ennual
crop OF stories which are told every
summer of the necessity in certain
localities Of using stepladders in har.
vesting the corn. One warn to which
currency was. given by the newspapers
q year ago stated that in certain KAN
sas townships the stalks grew SO tall
that they brushed against the tele-
phone wires and interfered with the
service by grounding the circuit.
If these stories are somewhat to be
doubted. the solid facts about the
Importance of the jorn crop ars not to
| be in any way discredited. The mag
nitude OF the corn fields of the West
and Southwest stasgers the imagina-
ton. The total yield for the United
States In 1902, the banner year thus
far, was 2.244,176,125 bushels---two
bushels each. roughly speaking for
each inhabitant OF the globe. On a
single farm at Tarkio In the northern
part of the State of Missouri-Hon
David Rankin's great bonnza corn
plantation, the largest in the world
about $4,000 acres are annually sown
in Indian corn. Here one may look
upon a single field OF more than 5000
acres.
Corn may make o metropolis. The
marvellous expansion of Kansas City
in the past two decades is due largely
to its position in the centre Of the
corn-growing region. The hog, the
steer and the horse are fed by King
Corn. Time was when Cincinnati was
the great packing centric of the coun-
try. but the hog passed westward to
root In the bigger cornfields and Chi
cago became the great packing town.
Now Kansas City is @ close second and
Cincinnati has practically gone out
of the packing busineas- Meantime
the western Missouri metropolis each
year strengthens its position as capt.
tai Of King Corn's realm.It has be-
come practically the financial head.
| quarters of Kansas and the chief ship
l'ping point for corn products. so that
| it's growth reflects the prosperity of
| the whole great corn beta growth
| that is evidenced by such facts as that
| the Kansas City metropolitan street
| railway company's earnings show an
| annual increase of about ten per cent.
| the directory a similar increase in the
| number of names. and the bank clear
| ings such an expansion that. though
| twenty-second in population, the city
| stands ninth in volume OF bank busi-
ness.
| A factor that has helped Kansas
| City to become the great capital of
| the corn belt is the extensive grow
| ing Of Kaffir corn In the semi-arid
lands of western Kansas. Nebraska
! and Oklahoma. Time was when the
| farmers in the regions beyond the
| Tooth meridin- were fighting an ap
| parently hopeless Aght against cii-
matte conditions. Attracted by the
| fertile soil many an agriculturist took
up land on those steppes only to find
| that two years out Of three, his crop
/ was spoileA by the hot winds
| which blister the soil In such way
that all Indian corn Is parched on the
stalk. For a time 1t looked as II
attempts to raise grain beyond GER
tain line would have to be abandoned
and that a vast region which had al
ready been taken up by settlers must
revert to stock raising. But all that
has been changed. partly by the vogue
of alfalfa grass which will grow al
most anywhere. and equally so by this
introduction of Kaffir corn. The al
falfa, as all the world knows ia &
valuable crop for stock feeding while
the Kaffir corn which was introduced
into this country late in the eighties
from Africa where Il had already at
tracted attention as a grain that sue
cessfully resist droughta. It has beer
l known 20 mature q crou OF from a