A STUDY OF FARM ORGANIZATION IN CENTRAL KANSAS 3 
corn, oats, barley, alfalfa, kafir, the sorghums, milo, sudan, and other 
miscellaneous crops belong to the latter class. 
During the 50 years for which statistics relating to crops and live- 
stock are available, there have been significant shifts in the acreage 
of the different crops. 
There have been three distinct periods in the expansion of the 
wheat acreage in this county. (See fig. 2.) The first of these began 
about 1874 and continued a decade. In 1884 there were 157,000 
acres of wheat harvested in the county. The years 1885 to 1887 
were very unfavorable for wheat production and by 1887 the har- 
vested acreage had fallen to less than 30,000 acres. During these 
three years only 44 per cent of the acreage of wheat sown was har- 
vested. The declining price of wheat from 1880 to 1886 was also a 
factor in the reduction of the wheat acreage. (See fig. 3.) In 1887 
only 54,000 acres were sown, which was the smallest acreage sown 
after 1876. Many farmers left the county at this time. However, 
a yield of 24 bushels per acre in 1889 and yields of 14 to 21 bushels 
per acre during the three following years provided sufficient incentive 
for a continued expansion of the wheat area. 
The second period of expansion of the wheat acreage began in 1889 
and reached a peak in 1901 and 1902 when wheat again occupied 
more than 60 per cent of the grain acreage. The rapid expansion 
which took place from 1889 to 1893 was temporarily checked by low 
wheat yields from 1893 to 1895 and declining prices for wheat from 
1890 to 1894. Improving yields and prices resulted in renewed 
expansion in 1897 and subsequent years until 1902, after which year 
the harvested acreage declined slightly until 1909. * 
Unfavorable weather conditions in the fall and winter of 1909-10 
were responsible for the wheat acreage harvested in 1910 being the 
lowest since 1874. More than 90 per cent of the crop sown in the 
fall of 1909 was abandoned before harvest. Again, in 1912, only 
54 per cent of the sown acreage was harvested. 
In 1913 and 1914 there was very little abandonment of acreage 
and the yields were 14 and 23 bushels per acre, respectively. By 
1914 wheat again constituted more than 60 per cent of the total 
acreage in grain crops. Then began a third period of expansion 
which reached a peak in the 245,000 acres sown to wheat in 1921, 
of which 240,000 acres were harvested. This expansion was, no 
doubt accelerated by the high prices paid for wheat during the period 
from 1917 to 1920. In 1922 wheat constituted 76 per cent of the 
total acreage in grain crops, including corn. 
Of the feed crops produced in this region, corn, oats, and alfalfa 
are the most important. The weather conditions in the fall and 
winter have a considerable influence upon the proportion of the 
acreage of wheat sown that is harvested. Since the wheat crop is 
seeded in the fall, abandonment of the crop before the time for 
seeding spring crops will have a considerable influence upon the 
acreage oi the spring crops grown. Many of the radical changes in 
the acreage of the important feed crops may be accounted for prim- 
arily by the causes which affected the wheat acreage. 
1 No data on the abandoned wheat acreage during this period are available. A part of the decrease in the 
harvested wheat acreage during this period may have resulted from unfavorable conditions resulting in 
abandonment. 
