Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1870-07-07
THE WHEAT CROP OF 1870.
An Official Rep6r..

acres. figure reduction this Spring of
more than 800. 900 acres, or nearly per
cent of last years assumed acreage. The
reduction is greatest in nlinois-15 per
cent in Winter wheat and Is in Spring
wheat; Indiana, per cent. in Winter, and
20 in Spring; Ohio, A per cent. in Winter
and in Spring; Wisconsin and Iowa
(Spring Mostly eech s per cent Missouri,
{ Winter), per cent. Minnesota, with an
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, gain
of per cent; West Virginia and Kentucky
show q larger breadth; North Carolina
alone in all the South claims increase,
some of the Cotton States falling off 20
per cent. New York appears to have lost
4 per cent, and New England, per cent.
Abundant testimony has this spring
been furnished to prove that the wheat
drill is annually worth millions to the ag-
of this country. Draining has
also been means of preventing loss by
freezing. Wherever winter-killing has oc-
CURED it has been in isolated patches, not
whole counties or 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 Lollows 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 the
effects of frost; yet there has been son Q
loss, considerable in the aggregate, AS thel o
is each year, Blu. scarcely as much as the
years win 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 winter-killing was more
or less severe, involving 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, Tuscola,
Knox, and Monroe. In third of the conn
ties of Indiana, sufficient loss was sustain
ed to reduce the general condition of whea.
below the average. Fully half the counties
in Ohio presented in early spring 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 Writer varie.
ty, and that moisty was little i-;ured by
freezing. Michigan, an excep:scn in Its
latitude on account of its insusr position,
cultivates a large proportion OF white:
wheat, and has not escaped injury from
frost, especially in Montcalm, Barry. Hills.
dale, Van Buren,, Calhoun, Livingston anG
Oakland counties. In some counties. snow
furnished complete projections; in Enmet
it was three feet deep on the LIST of April
LATE SOWING.
The feebleness and unthrifty appearance
of.the plant, wherever apparent, has almost
universally been attributed more to lat,
seeding than to any other cause. More
than halt the crop was sown or drilled latel
than it should have been, and somewhat
later than usual. The severe drouth in tn,
middle and southern states, and the press
ure of summer work delayed by the unpro
pitious spring In the. west. together Will
the habit of delay from which the farmer
suffer as well as other men, postponed tn,
breaking up of wheat lands; while the un
usually early closing in of Winter lett tbt
plant scarcely above the frozen surface, anC
In many instances not even visible.
PRESENT PROSPECTS.
The season has been moderately propi
tous as q whole, though not precisely Al
farmers would have it in many localities
sunshine. pushing the crop into early ma
trrity. but promising q yield not equal t,
the Is or IA bushels per acre of last year
and scarcely equal to that of 1868, but Will
an average oil bushels. In many place:
4. =
localities, there is complaint of too little
rain. and in others of too much. The rail-
fall in May Was quite small in New Eng
land, New York, generally throughout til,
West and in the cotton States. In the At
lantic States south OF New York, ON tn
contrary, rains have been excessive. Ii
New York much of the Winter grain is no
in an average condition.; in Washington
County 'ft seldom looked worse a
this season of the yer;" i
late-sown is unthristy 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 has been I'M
usually favorable in Burlington, and il
looking well throughout the state. TIL,
Pennsylvania, promises well in Maryland
ana good average crop is cutting in yir
GINA and North Carolina, with little los,
from rust or failing in consequence O
heavy rains. The crop in the south is gen
orally good, though light in some places
as the result of drouth. The Tappahan
mock (from the Department of Agriculture
is great success in this region, and is yer,
generally preferred. In the Red River re
gion, Texas, the weather has been cool
and the crop late, but unusually fine. II
has been injured there only 10y hail anC
other storms. The crop will be fair il
Tennessee, with some drawbacks, as lode
ing, rust, ETC., during recent heavy rams
In Illinois, a reduction of perhaps Is pei
cent may be expected in the yield; in some
counties the crop appears well; in some
half crop will be gathered. When the
plant had feeble vitality at the start. the
dry weather has nearly destroyed it. Ac-
counts from Indiana are variable, ranging
from failure to fullness. Ohio, Michigan,
Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, in fact
all the western states, report more discour-
agements from feeble growth, drouth.
hail, rain and rust than for two years past.
and render probable much smaller ag.
gregate production than that of last wear.
and very likely smaller yield than that Of
1868.
1t may not be generally known that nine
counties in California produce three-fourths
OF the crop OF the State. They each WELD
IT, 0O, 900, 1000. 900 or 2. 500, 900 bushels.
and are named very nearly in the order OF
precedence in production, as follows:
Stanislaus, Sonoma, Santa Clara, San Joa-
quin, Colusa, Solano, Alameda, Monterey
and Yolo. 1t is an undoubted fact that the
larger part of the failure experienced arises
from superficial or careless cultivation of
the soil Instances Of thorough culture in
blighted districts are so numerous and
marked as to prove it conclusively.
WHEAT IN THE SOUTH.
This crop is more than ever neglected in
the cotton states this year. Probably not
more than two-thirds of a million of acres
are growing in the six states from South
Carolina TO Texas. Tennessee alone has n
larger breadth than all combined. Good
wheat can be raised over nearly all their
surface, and the higher lands of South
Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama, and an
area Ia northern Texas, ere adj
mIrably adapted TO wheat growing. The