HERE ARE SOME
CORN STATISTICS
THAT ARE SURPRISING
Nebraska is the third largest 'corn-producing
state in the Union, although a
large area of her acreage is not suited to
corn-growing because of the high alti
tude. Corn is essentially a hot weather
plant. But from an average of G,000,000
acres during the past ten years Nebraska
has harvested an annual average crop of
corn amounting to upwards of 200,000,
000 bushels.
During the decade 1900-1910 the fertile
corn fields of Nebraska yielded two bil
lion, one hundred forty-six millions,
eight hundred thirty-four thousand, six
hundred eighty-six bushels of corn 2,
146,834,686. This is about the average
annual yield of the entire corn acreage of
the United States. In other words,
every decade Nebraska produces as much
corn as the entire United States pro
duce in any one year. Or again, the 6,
000,000 acres of corn land in Nebraska
annually produced approximately one
tenth of all the corn raised in the United
States.
If the corn produced in Nebraska dur
ing the decade ending December 31, 1910,
was loaded into standard freight cars,
1,200 bushels to the car, it would make a
freight train 13,553 miles long more
than one-half the circumference of the
globe. Divided into trains of 75 cars
each it would require 23,854 locomotives
to furnish the motive power. There are
not freight engines enough in the United
States to move such a tonnage.
There are six trunk lines of railroad
connecting Omaha, Nebraska, and Chi
cago. The distance between the two cit
ies is 500 miles. Two of these trunk lines
are double-tracked, making in fact eight
lines between the two cities, or 4,000
miles of track. Nebraska's corn crop for
the last decade would fill the entire mile
age between Chicago and Omaha three
times over, and there would be enough
cars left to fill more than 1,500 miles of
side track.
And despite these stupendous figures
Nebraska has as yet but touched upon
her possibilities as a corn-producing
state. With six millions acres devoted to
corn raising, there are six million acres
of equally good corn land in the state
that has never been touched by a plow.
Measured by productivity, nearness to
market and social surroundings, it is the
cheapest land in the world today. Ne
braska offers to the homeseeker more and
better opportunities than any other
state.
THE PO JJLTRY IND USTRY.
In 1910 the surplus shipments of live
poultry from railroad stations in Ne
braska amounted to 22,498,821 pounds,
worth at the initial point $2,020,893.
The shipments of dressed poultry amount
ed to 5,557,105 pounds, worth at the ini
tial point $833,565. All this, after mar-
keting$18,000,000 worth of eggs and leav
ing 1,200,000 hens and roosters upon the
farms to bring about another year's out
put of poultry products.
The egg and poultry product of Ne
braska in 1910 was worth upwards of
$21,000,000 just a little by product of
farms that produced upward of $400,
000,000 worth of grains and grasses and
tubers, not mentioning, the $200,000,000
worth of live stock raised and shiped to
market.
THE INDUSTRIOUS
NEBRASKA HENS
AND THEIR ANNUAL OUTPUT
In the good year of 1910 the Biddy
. Hens of Nebraska produced 102,000,000
dozen eggs. One billion, two hundred
twenty-four million eggs. The average
market price of eggs the year 'round is
about 15 cents. The 1910 egg crop of
Nebraska was worth more than $18,
000,000. Nebraska's 1910 egg crop was worth as
much as Alaska's 1910 output of gold,
and more than the gold output of any
state or territory with one exception.
This 'one year's output of Nebraska hens
was worth two-thirds as much as the
total silver product of the United" States
and Alaska for the same year. Kentucky
is the greatest tobacco producing state.
Her tobacco crop each year is not worth
as much as Nebraska's egg crop each
year. The annual egg crop of Nebraska is
worth one-fourth as much as the nation's
tobacco crop.
Placed end to end in single line, the
eggs laid by Nebraska hens in 1910
would reach one and a half times around
the globe.
The 1910 egg crop of Nebraska would
fill 3,400,000 cases. There are 400 cases
to the carload. It would require 8,500
standard freight cars to transport this
egg crop to market, making a train up
wards of 155 miles long.
Outside of cereals and cotton, no state
in the Union produces a single crop equal
in value to the egg output of Nebraska.
Some eggs, worth some money! Yes,
yet, after all, the egg crop of Nebraska
is merely a by-product of the Nebraska
farm, and represents less than one-third
of the value of Nebraska's annual dairy
and poultry output.
RATHER UNIQUE.
Nebraska's junior United States sena
tor, Gilbert M. Hitchcock of Omaha, is
the youngest grandfather in the United
States senate. He is the only native
born senator representing a state ad
mitted to the Union less than fifty years
ago. He is perhaps the only senator who
lives in the house in which he was born.
He is the only democratic senator repre
senting a state which was formerly rep
resented in the same body by a republican
father.
WHILE TALKING
ABOUT ALFALFA
HERE ARE SOME FIGURES
Twenty years ago alfalfa was an ex
perimental crop in the United States.
Outside of a few remote places in the
southwest it was practically unknown.
Today it is recognized as one of the great
crops of the west and southwest, and in
some places is called "the mortgage lift
er." Twenty years ago Nebraska's alfalfa
crop was a negligible quantity too
small in value to be included in the sta
tistics. In 1910 the alfalfa crop of Ne
braska was worth $28,255,000.
In 1890 the acreage of alfalfa was cor,
fined to a few small experimental fields
in the southwestern part of the state. In
1910 the acreage amounted to 701,435.
From each acre was harvested an aver
age of 3 09 tons, a total tonnage for the
state in that year of 1,883,681. Loaded
into standard freight cars, baled, ten
tons to the car, it would require 188,368
cars to transport to market ayear's output
of the alfalfa fields of Nebraska. This
would make a freight train 1,234 miles
long, a distance equal to that between
Boston, Mass., and Jacksonville, Florida,
by the most direct line of railroad. Such
a train would reach almost one-half the
distance across the United States at its
widest point.
There is not a railroad system in the
United States with one-half enough cars
suitable for the task of hauling such an
enormous tonnage.
The yearly output of Nebraska's al
falfa fields is worth more than the year
ly output of the tobacco fields of any two
states in the Union any three states, ex
cluding Kentucky. And the acreage and
production of alfalfa in Nebraska is in
creasing at a wonderful rate. The in
crease in acreage in 1910 over 1909 was
approximately 10 per cent. Inside of
the next decade Nebraska will be raising
alfalfa on -1,500,000 acres, and the an
nual crop will be worth upwards of $50,
000,000. Now would be a good time to
secure some of this available alfalfa
land. It will never again be as cheap
as it is in this year of 1911.
A PROOF OF HER YOUTH.
That Nebraska is a youthful state is
evidenced by the fact that one of the men
who located the state capital in Lincoln
is still a resident of Lincoln, hale and
hearty and active in business. His name
is Thomas Kennard, and he is a member
of the Lincoln park commission. Ne
braska is one vast health resort, thank
you!
The Ad Clubs of Lincoln and Omaha
are going to make staid old Boston sit up
and take notice next week. And Will
Maupin's Weekly for next week will
make the down easterns sit up and take
notice.