The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1916-09-23
FEWER SWINE NOW
Reports of County Assessors
Show a Decrease for Last
Year of 233, 518 Head.
TOTAL MARCH /, 1,573,945
Prices Are Higher, However, and Pro-
dueers Of Pork Are Reaping a
Golden Harvest. :. 80. Z.

The number OF hogs in Kansas
March 1 of this year was 1873, 945, ac-
cording to the official returns Of as
SCISSORS to the State Board of Agri-
culture. This is a decrease of 233, 518
head, or about 13 per cent, in the
twelve-months, and is the smallest
number III fourteen years, excepting
1914, when the number was less by
10000. The greatest number of hogs
reported for Kansas in any one year
was 2,76G,o71, in 1898.
While hogs are fewer, prices are
higher. All former records at Kansas
City have been broken by the high
prices paid for hogs this year, and the
: present market at that point stands
around $1,000 to 81 per hundred
[ pounds. At such prices the producers
of pork are reaping a golden harvest,
and the hog is adding fresh laurels to
his long established and enviable rep
utation as mortgage litter. Increased
prices will in a measure if not wholly
offset the lack in numbers, SO far as
gross income from the states pork
making operations are concerned,
compared with former years
AS is well known, corn is the main
stay in fattenjng hogs, and in this con-
nection it is interesting to note that
the principal corn producing counties
Of Kansas are also the chief hog rails
ers. In hog population Washington
county leads this year with 1922
head. Jewell is second with 46,765.
The other ten leading counties, in or
der, are as follows: Butler 43,11O,
Marshall 4O,919, Nemaha 40, Csc, Smith
38,483, CowIey 35, O92, Republic 5,O55,
Sedgwick SO, 1854, Dickinson 81, $50, Pot
awatomie 31,654, and Brown with go
22S
These twelve counties aggregate in
hogs 455.561 head, or % per cent of
the total number for the state, and
last year their total production of corn
amounted to 1860, 200 bushels, or
31.5 per cent of the states crop. There
was a big surplus of corn grown in
Kansas in 1915, as indicated by the
37,614,434 bushels reported on hand
March 1, this year, Smith county lead
ing with 2,304,67S bushels ond hand
and Jewell county next with 1885
bushels. These counties, it will be
observed. are among the prominent
hog producers. Much of the held-over
corn, high priced as it was. has been
profitably fed tohogs.
Annie L. Diggs Dead.-Mrs Annie
L. Diggs. formerly of Kansas" died
recently in Detroit at the home of her
son, Fred L. Diggs. She was about
20 years old. Mrs. Diggs was one
of the most prominent early suffrage
leaders in Kansas and was a power
in state politics in the days of the
Populists She was state librarian
from 1898 to 1902 and noted lecturer
for suffrage.
Students Pay More for Board. -
The price of student board at the
University of Kansas was hiked to
$3.50 at a recent meeting of several
boarding house Eeepers. The price
last year was 81. The reason is given
as the high cost of foodstuffs.
Bees Worked WeII.-Two hundred
and fifty pounds of honey in one bee
gum is the record at the George Reed
bee farm in Saline county where 1000
pounds of honey will be gathered this
year.
x
LeaVenworth Gets Factory.-A shoe
factory to employ not less than $50
men is to be located in Leavenworth.
and it is to be in running order before
Christmas. This announcement was
made at the Commercial Club banquet
held the other night.
: x
Suffocated Under Auto.-E. T.
Nagle of Kansas City, coffee can
Vasser, was killed ten miles south of
Clay Center when a motor car in
which he was riding, skidded and
overturned in a ditch. Two compan-
ions with him were but slightly in
jured. Nagle was pinned under the
car when it overturned and was killed
by fumes from the motor
X x
Killed by Lightning-Roy Davis,
~ years old. was killed at his farm
near White City the other morning
when lightning struck barn in which
he had taken shelter.
x x
OIOO WOuiGH OCdOs-1dES. george
W. Winans, a pioneer Kansas club
woman, and one of the founders of
the public library in Hutchinson, is
dead at her home there.
Attempt to Burn Church Failed
An incendiary whe tried to burn the
negro Baptist church at Pittsburg
prepared well for his task, but the
blaze was a failure. The walls were
soaked with kerosene and straw had
been piled under the seats. Only $50
damage was done.
Assistant Police Chief Dead
Benjamin Hanes, assistant police
chief of Wichita, is dead, after short
Illness. He had been a policeman
twenty years. A brother. Silas Hanes,
lives in Kansas City.
x x
Million for His Oil Leases-War-
rem c. Brown. an Augusta banker, has
\ e.