In common with winter wheat, rye shows an increased acreage, though not large. In the aggregate the increase equals six and a half per cent.
The main rye belt of the State, the six counties having to exceed 5,000 acres, with a single exception lie in a bunch in the north and northwest, the exception, Brown, being but a single county (Nemaha) away from the others. In rank, Washington is first, the others following in order, to wit: Clay, Republic, Jewell, Marshall and Brown. Cloud lacks but 48 acres of the quota for the first belt, and Phillips 859.
The following tabular statement shows the acreage of the counties embraced in the main or first belt in 1877 and in 1878, the increase this year over last, and the acreage in these same counties in 1872, the different columns being so arranged as to show the rank of the counties in the year quoted:
| Acreage 1877. | Acreage 1878. | Increase 1878 Over 1877. |
Acreage 1872. | ||||
| Washington | 11,219 | Washington | 9,736 | Brown | 3,098 | Washington | 1,453 |
| Marshall | 6,394 | Clay | 7,650 | Republic | 1,972 | Republic | 1,098 |
| Clay | 5,780 | Republic | 6,854 | Clay | 1,870 | Brown | 909 |
| Jewell | 5,125 | Jewell | 5,480 | Jewell | 355 | Marshall | 866 |
| Republic | 4,882 | Marshall | 5,374 | Marshall | *1,020 | Clay | 702 |
| Brown | 1,961 | Brown | 5,059 | Washington | *1,483 | Jewell | 114 |
| 35,461 | 40,153 | 4,792 | 5,142 | ||||
In 1872, the rye acreage of the six counties was a trifle over 18 per cent. of the rye acreage of the State. In 1878 it was 31 per cent., while of the increased acreage of the State as a whole, nearly 61 per cent. was in these six counties. The second belt, embracing counties with over 3,000 and less than 5,000 acres, is confined to seven counties - Cloud, Phillips, Pottawatomie, Dickinson, Mitchell, Reno, and Riley - their rank in aggregate of acreage being as placed. The third belt - 2,000 to 3,000 acres - includes eight counties, running in rank as follows: Smith, Nemaha, Ottawa, Jackson, Doniphan, Rice, Lyon and Osborne. The aggregate acreage of the counties in the second belt was 26,777 in 1878 to 25,076 in 1877, and the aggregate acreage of the counties in the third belt 19,995 in 1878 to 18,494 in 1877.
In 1866, Kansas was the thirtieth State in the Union in aggregate of rye product, there being but two States - Nebraska and Louisiana - producing less. In 1876, Kansas was the first State in aggregate of rye product, having upwards of one-sixth the entire rye product of the United States.
TABLE showing the Number of Acres of Rye in each County to the Square Mile for 1878, arranged in seven groups of ten counties each, commencing with the highest.
| Acres | Acres | Acres | |||
| Clay | 11.59 | Lyon | 2.59 | Franklin | 0.76 |
| Washington | 10.81 | Lincoln | 2.50 | Anderson | 0.67 |
| Republic | 9.51 | Osborne | 2.39 | Linn | 0.67 |
| Brown | 8.78 | Jefferson | 2.33 | ||
| Cloud | 6.86 | Norton | 2.14 | Rooks | 0.65 |
| Doniphan | 6.21 | Ellsworth | 2.13 | Allen | 0.59 |
| Jewell | 6.08 | Russell | 0.59 | ||
| Marshall | 5.97 | Osage | 2.09 | Labette | 0.56 |
| Riley | 5.16 | Marion | 1.98 | Cowley | 0.55 |
| Pottawatomie | 4.71 | Harvey | 1.97 | Elk | 0.55 |
| Leavenworth | 1.77 | Ellis | 0.53 | ||
| Atchison | 4.63 | Morris | 1.73 | Greenwood | 0.53 |
| Mitchell | 4.60 | Wabaunsee | 1.58 | Bourbon | 0.51 |
| Phillips | 4.60 | Wyandotte | 1.56 | Cherokee | 0.51 |
| Dickinson | 4.59 | Coffey | 1.50 | ||
| Nemaha | 3.98 | Saline | 1.31 | Chautauqua | 0.45 |
| Ottawa | 3.88 | Sumner | 1.28 | Rush | 0.31 |
| Johnson | 3.82 | Wilson | 0.31 | ||
| Davis | 3.64 | Sedgwick | 1.22 | Neosho | 0.27 |
| Jackson | 3.62 | Barton | 1.19 | Montgomery | 0.26 |
| Smith | 3.25 | McPherson | 1.16 | Crawford | 0.18 |
| Chase | 1.06 | Miami | 0.17 | ||
| Rice | 3.17 | Woodson | 0.92 | Barbour | 0.07 |
| Douglas | 3.14 | Pawnee | 0.88 | Edwards | 0.06 |
| Shawnee | 3.06 | Butler | 0.85 | Ford | 0.03 |
| Reno | 2.63 |
* Decrease.
