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Kansas State Board of Agriculture
First Biennial Report

PRODUCTS OF KANSAS

Oats.

1878


The increase of oat acreage is exceedingly large, 444,191 acres in 1878 to 310,226 in 1877, a gain in the one year of over 30 per cent. The main belt of oat acreage, like that of barley, may be said to be in subdivisions, as of the twelve counties constituting it - those having to exceed 10,000 acres - six are in the southwest, four in the south and southeast, and one each in the east and the northeast. In relative rank those in the southwest are Sedgwick first, McPherson second, Reno fifth, Harvey sixth, Sumner ninth and Butler eleventh. Of the south and southeast counties Cherokee is third, Labette fourth, Crawford eighth and Bourbon tenth. Johnson in the east is seventh, and Brown in the northeast twelfth.

The following tabular statement shows the acreage of the counties embraced in the first belt in 1877 and in 1878, the increase this year over last, and the acreage in these same counties in 1872, the counties being so placed as to show their relative rank in the different showings:

Johnson 12,923 Sedgwick 22,176 Sedgwick 11,605 Johnson 16,088
McPherson 12,173 McPherson 16,696 Sumner 6,850 Bourbon 15,148
Harvey 11,664 Cherokee 15,512 Bourbon 5,146 Brown 14,010
Cherokee 10,863 Labette 13,376 Labette 4,797 Labette 11,113
Sedgwick 10,571 Reno 12,693 Cherokee 4,649 Crawford 8,530
Brown 9,113 Harvey 12,243 McPherson 4,523 Butler 4,005
Reno 9,092 Johnson 11,883 Crawford 4,145 Cherokee 3,772
Labette 8,579 Crawford 11,658 Reno 3,601 McPherson 906
Butler 8,440 Sumner 11,621 Butler 2,540 Sedgwick 807
Crawford 7,513 Bourbon 11,192 Brown 1,585 Sumner 171
Bourbon 6,046 Butler 10,980 Harvey 579 Reno 42
Sumner 4,771 Brown 10,698 Johnson * 1,040 Harvey -
 
 
 
 
  112,348   160,728   48,380   74,592

In 1872, the oat acreage of these twelve counties was twenty-seven per cent. of that of the State. In 1878 it was more than 36 per cent., while of the increase of acreage in the State, upward of 35 per cent. of it was in these counties.

The second belt - those counties having 8,000 to 10,000 acres - skips here, there and everywhere about the State. Linn leads, Pottawatomie next, then Dickinson, Montgomery, Atchison, Jefferson, Marshall, Neosho Douglas, Lyon, Nemaha, Leavenworth, Marion, Washington, Cowley, Doniphan and Saline, in the order they are placed. The aggregate acreage of the twelve reaching 147,068, or within a fraction of one-third of the entire acreage of the State.

In 1866, Kansas was twenty-eighth among the States in aggregate of oat product. In 1876, she was ninth.

OATS TO THE SQUARE MILE.

TABLE Showing the Number of Acres of Oats in each County to the Square Mile for 1878, arranged in seven groups of ten counties each, commencing with the highest.

Cherokee 26.32 Dickinson 10.87 Riley 4.84
Johnson 24.75 Franklin 10.84 Barton 4.43
Harvey 22.67 Allen 10.08 Davis 4.39
Sedgwick 22.00 Reno 10.07    
Atchison 21.64 Sumner 9.78 Ottawa 4.27
Doniphan 21.21 Lyon 9.70 Elk 3.80
Labette 20.61     Chase 3.60
Crawford 19.67 Marshall 9.70 Wabaunsee 3.60
Brown 18.57 Coffey 9.48 Mitchell 3.50
McPherson 18.55 Shawnee 9.18 Pawnee 2.90
    Washington 9.15 Chautauqua 2.68
Douglas 18.25 Clay 8.88 Ellsworth 2.37
Leavenworth 18.21 Marion 8.66 Smith 2.37
Bourbon 17.56 Anderson 8.59 Lincoln 1.57
Wyandotte 15.88 Rice 8.31    
Linn 15.55 Butler 7.68 Osborne 1.44
Neosho 14.88 Woodson 7.53 Phillips 1.39
Montgomery 14.12     Barbour 0.62
Jefferson 13.40 Osage 7.36 Rush 0.58
Miami 12.50 Cowley 7.29 Edwards 0.51
Nemaha 11.55 Republic 7.14 Russell 0.40
    Morris 6.72 Ellis 0.27
Wilson 11.49 Cloud 6.22 Ford 0.15
Jackson 11.48 Jewell 5.78 Norton 0.15
Pottawatomie 11.30 Greenwood 4.97 Rooks 0.03
Saline 11.13