The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-04-02
Future Corn Crops-Agricuitursl Pros
poets or the Country.

Future Corn Crops-Agricuisursi Pros
poets or the Country.
The Illinois correspondent Of the Country
Gentleman makes the following statement:-
ut is my impression that the corn crop OF
1874 will be light as compared with those OF
1871 and 1917, and probably good deal less
than that of 1873. Indeed do not expect to
see oftener than once in ten years seasons as
favorable as 1871 and 1872, and I question
whether we shall ever again see the amount OF
corn in Illinois, or indeed in the corn region,
we saw in 1872 As compared with the wheat
region the corn region is rather limited in
area. l consider the corn region proper to be
also par excellence the grazing region, and to
be confined to that climate and area where fifty
bushels of corn is the average yield for good
cultivation, and where permanent pastures
may be kept and maintained through the
year-pastures which will carry horses sheep
and cattle through even the coolest winter,
with the assistance of hay and straw stacks to
run to in rough weather. Through all this
region of corn and cattle, hay, grass, hogs
aud bad roads the tendency is to more and
moro pastures every year-to less corn to be
consumed off the farm and less wheat and
ether small grain
The corn crop of 1874 will depend on the
tendency in farming to grow less corn; nor is
there any reason for supposing that we have
seen our largest corn crop or anything like
it There are good many reasons why the
corn crop must be large for many years.
First the majority Of farmers in the West are
not intelligent enough to grow other crops,
while no other crop, as farming is conducted, is
so proftab There is no use oftrying to grow
winter wheat on the bleak prairie There is o
constant and increasing demand for corn, to
be fed on the premises to cattle raised in
Texas, Colorado and the Southwest. Further,
not more than half the corn land of Illinois
has even yet been broken, and nothing 10
more certain than that during the ten years
following its breaking it will be mostly de-
voted to corn. But Illinois is not the only
State that by good cultivation can
produce fifty bushels to the acre.
The southern half of Iowa and the
northern half of Missouri are equal
to Central Illinois, and beyond is Nebraska,
with an immense corn area, while Kansas will
produce q world Of corn. Comparatively
speaking. we have hardly begun to raise corn,
and, SO far from the crop of 1872 being larger
than any we are likely to grow, the crop of
1882 may, and most likely will, exceed it ten,
possibly twenty, times.
There are other regions besides the States
and Territories here named where corn is to be
large extent Of good corn land; so has Texas,
and there are millions and millions Of acres
with not furrow turned, each of which is
good for thirty bushels to the acre. Then,
Northern Iowa can grow good corn, and even
in Minnesota the aggregate will be large. Of
course there are second and third class corn
regions, but they will help swell the grand
total during the next ten or twenty years, as
the prairie sod shall be broken, and, unless
there shall be much greater intelligence among
the farmers, corn will be grown for the next
fifty or one hundred years far more extern
sively than at present The steady in
crease of population, both in the United
States and in Europe, demands an in.
creased breadth of corn, and it would be
difficult to imagine how the world would get
along without it, for the corn crop of our coun-
try gives what nothing else can give, the beef
lard, bacon and pork that form, to great
extent, the basis of commerce. Take the corn
fed beef of Illinois from the New York market
and good steak would rise to forty cents q
pound. The above writer assumes that the Illi-
nois corn region is eminently q stock region.
The readers of market reports are apt to think
Illinois produces more cattle than any other
State, but this is for want of understanding
the facts. The large number of cattle re-
ported as coming from Illinois are raised in
Texas, Colorado and the Southwest, Arkansas
and Missouri, and they are brought to the
corn region to be fattened first to Chicago,
whence they are distributeD, and when sent
to Eastern markets they are set down as
coming from Illinois This simply shows the
capacity of this corn region for fattening cat
tie. So soon as the other corn regions shall
De put III CuluVatloH oluer distributing points
will be established on the Missouri River; in
deed, Kansas City is rapidly becoming such a
point
Another mistake in this connection is the
statement that corn region is also grazing
region. This is not the case at all The so il
best suited for corn is not best suited for
grass, for both the soil and the climate are un-
favorable, inasmuch as stand of fine grass is
obtained with difficulty as those who for
twenty and more years have been trying to get
good grass in Central Illinois we'll know.
The great obstacle lies in the heat of the
summer sun, which dries up the grass. North
of the corn belt grass is natural product,
and there, as is well known, are the dairy