The Conservative. (M'connelsville, Ohio) 1866-1871, 1870-07-08
THE WHEAT CROP OF 1870.
An OmcIaI Report.

cent in Winter wheat and Is in Spring
wheat; Indiana, 6 per cent. in Winter, and
20 in Spring; Ohio, 4 per cent. in Winter
and z in Spring; Wisconsin and Iowa
(Spring Mostly each 8 per cent. /; Missouri,
(Winter), z per cent. Minnesota, with an
increasing population, while threatening
to stop wheat-growing, claims an increase
of 2per cent Kansas also claims an in
crease of 16 per cent, and California, a gain
of 5 per cent. /; West Virginia and Kentucky
show a larger breadth; North Carolina
alone in all the South claims increase,
some of the Cotton States falling of %
per cent. New York appears to have lost
4 per cent, and New England, 2 per cent.
Abundant testimony has this spring
been furnished to prove that the wheat
drill is annually worth millions to the ag-
riculture of this country. Draining has
also been a means of preventing loss by
freezing. Wherever winter-killing has oc-
CURED it has been in isolated patches, not
throughout whole counties Dr. broad belts
of country; it has been due more to condi-
ton of soil than to extreme or frequent
changes of temperature; it has been seen
in stiff soils, in hollows where water stands
on the surface, in half pulverized soils, and
in fields where the seed was scattered on
the surface. Very few good farmers have
occasion this spring to complain of thu
effects of frost; yet there has been son. @
loss, considerable in the aggregate, as there
is each year, but scarcely as much as the
years will average.
Among the great grain fields of the west
the severest injury from winter-killing was
in Illinois. Here, as elsewhere, early drill
ed wheat on carefully prepared, dry or
drained soils, escaped injury. Among the
counties in which wnter-killing was more
or less severe, involving a loss of ten to
fifty per cent. of the plants, are Wayne,
st. Clair, Menard, Franklin, (killed in
prairie, but good in timber), Marion, Jack
son, Henderson, Edwards, Peoria, Adams,
Crawford, Tazewell, Kendall Clay, Effing-
ham, Fulton, Macoupin, Perry, Tnscola,
Knox, and Monroe. In a third of the conn
ties of Indiana, sufficient loss was sustain
ed to reduce the general condition of wheat
below the average. Fully half the counties
in Ohio presented in early spring n less
than average prospect, with some injury
from freezing, IN no case particularly Sc
we're. North and west of Illinois less than
a tenth of the crop is OF the EiL,tsr varie-
'ty, and that moiety wGs little fDlnred by
freezing. Michigan, an eZ9sAsisn IN its
latitude ON account of its insular position,
cultivates a large proportion of winter
wheat, and has not escaped injury from
frost, especially in MOntcalm, Barry. Hills
dale, Van Buren,, Calhoun, Livingston and
Oakland counties. In some counties, snow
furnished complete protection; in Emmett
it was three feet deep on the list of April.
LAT SOWING.
The feebleness and unthrifty appearance
oflthe plant, wherever apparent, has almost
universally been attributed more to late
seeding than to any other cause More
than halt the crop was sOwn or drilled later
than it should have been, and somewhat
later than usual. The severe drouth in the
middle and southern states, and the press
ure of summer work delayed BIZ the unpro-
pitious spring in the west. together with
the habit of delay from which the farmers
suffer as well as other men, postponed the
breaking up of wheat lands; while the nm
usually early closing in of Winter LETT the
plant scarcely above the frozen surface, and
in many instances not sven visible.
PRESENT PROSPECTS,.
The season has been moderately propi.
tous as a whole, though not preciselv os
farmers would have it in many IrS,aItiao
There have been few showers and mncb
sunshine, pushing the cror into early ma
turity, but promising a Weld not equal to
the Is or Ia bushels per acre of last wear.
and scarcely eoIal to that of1S68, but with
an average Sf11 bushels. In many places
the progpect was never better. In some
IocSL1ties, there is complaint of too little
rain, and In others of too much. The rain
fall in May was quite small in New Eng
land, New York, generally throughout tie
West and In the cotton States. In the At
lantic States south of New York, on the
contrary, rains have been excessive. In
New York much of the Winter grain is not
IN IN average condition; in Washington
County SIT seldom looked worse al
this season of the yer;" u,
is small and unpromising in Genesee; the
late-sown is unthrIgty in Livingston
Spring grain looks better. In New jersey,
wheat has ''made an extraordinary growth
IN Cumberland, has much improved" In
Hunterdon, and the season mas been I'M
usually favorable in Burlington, and is
looking well throughout the state. The
eron presents an improved appearance in
pennsylvania, promises well In Maryland.
ana n good average crop is cutting IN Vir-
gina and North Carolina, with little loss
from rust or failing in consequence OF
heavy rains. The crop in the south is gen
orally good, though light in some places,
as the result of drouth. The Tappahan-
C iron the Department of Agricultural
Is a great success In this region, and is very
generally preferred. In the Red River re-
glon, Texas, the weather has been cool,
and the crop late, but unusually fine. 1t
has been injured there only 10y hail and
other storms. The crop will be fair in
tennessee, with some drawbacks, as lodg-
ing, rust, ETC., during recent heavy rains.
In Illinois, q reduction of perhaps 10 per
cent may be expected in the yield; in some
counties the crop appears well; In some,
Tears arc entertained that little more than
nan q crop Will be gathered. When the
plant a a feeble vitality at the start, the
airy weather has nearly ~destroyedit. Ac-
counts from Indiana are variable, ranging
from failure TO fullness. Ohio, Michigan,
Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, IN fact
all hey este m states, report more discour-
agements from feeble growth, drouth,
hail, rain and rust than for two years past,
ana render probable a much smaller 40.
grGgate production than that of lsS. year,
End very likely a smaller yield tha4 Nas Of
1t may not be generally known that nine
counties IN California produce thr~ee-fourths
the crop OF the State. They each yield
l,OOO,O DOC, 1900, 600 or 9, 500, 900 bushels.
and are named very nearly in the order Of
precedence in production, as follows:
Stanlslaus, Sonoma, Santa Clara, San Joa-
4uln, Colusa, SolAnO, Alameda, MontersT
and Holo. 1t is an undoubted fact that ihe
part of the failure experienced arise :
rom superficial or careless cultiya zion Ol
he soil; Instances of thorough culture in
districts are so numo ,rous an 4
as to prove it conclusiveIy.
WHEAT IN SOUTH.
This crop is more than ever NEGLECTED in
he cotton states this year. Probable net
more than two-thirds of a million of acre:
re growing in the six S Gates from SontI,
1arolina to Texas. Tel 4nessee aIone mas a
anger breadth than al combined Good
Wheat can be raised over nearly IN 4boir
urface, and the higher lands C. south
jarollna, Georgia, and Alaba. ord am
immense area IN northern Texss are adj
nlrably adapted to wheat ,rom H The
resent crop is already mfibered in this
,ortlon of b South, , sGS uood o1aI-
y and fair yield for t ha 49, rs 1n so ,oce;yed.
Twenty wears EAT GROWING STATES.
he list Of ybss nave wrought changes in
a. .t-producing states that are
staoa d even startling. Pennsyl-
waS q. at the head of the list in 1919;
,od,s@ Nh in 1859; d in 1869, of nine