St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-11-26

occur SOOH again. uc dulOuHp VI
damage done to wheat by the unwont-
edly early frost of the middle of August
in the valley of the Red river and Its
western tributaries does not. OH fuller
knowledge, grow any less. The money
loss is not the most aggravating feature
of the situation. The heaviest loss has
fallen upon the very men who, according
to all ordinary rules, ought to have
been the most successful, AS rule
it is the best farms and the best
hit. The. beautiful baclzsettlng,
the carefully prepared summer fall
lowing. that gave every promise OF
yields of from thirty to forty bushels OF
wheat, are in many places standing to-
day waiting chance of getting them
burned off without the risk of setting
the whole country in a blaze at the same
time; while the scrub farmer whose
pitlful crop, one-third weeds, used to
amount to from five to ten bushels, has
this year from fifteen to twenty bushels
of
CAPITAL WHEAT.
Keen-eyed men OH the spot can easily
understand why this should be so. The
object of good farming is to bring the.
sell into such a state of fertility as to
produce to the utmost of its ability.
This season, after two very dry
summers, whose natural tendency was
to keep very much in check the re-
dundant fertility of those compare
lively new lands, we have had all the
forces of nature conspiring to push
their productive powers into unwonted
activity. On mean and badly farmed=
lands this extra stimulus told most
beneicially, and the grain was very
good with limited out-turn OF straw,
while the best lands ran all to straw,
in many cases to rust as well. and the
chill Or positive frost of the second
week of August gave it a check winch
Oh meanly nOurished but more robust
plant would have done little harm.
That unwonted luXuriance, even had
there been no frost. would have been
followed by most disappointing yield.
and on no land have L been able
to hit the proportion this year
between promise and yield that
l saw last year, even where there
has been no positive freezing to blame.
The deficit ON the best results OF this
season from those of last put at ten
bushels to the acre. Some first-rate
farmers there are who have good crop
on parts of their land, but that is usually
on stubbfe ploWed in the fall, where the
growth is naturally scantier and the ten
dency to over production of straw at
minimum. l found one very capable
and almost uniformly successful man
who Oh a light part OF his farm made
last season $40 an acre from yield OF
forty bushels.
This land has been measured, and
there is 10 doubt of the fact. This year
he has made 500 an acre from the worst
part of this land, selling at S1.10 bush
ell. There is low corner frozen, that
in former frosty years would not have
paid to cut; this year it made close on
S12 per acre. There are others who
might be named by the dozen, at all
points in the area named, who have
been
POSITIVELY CRUSHED
by this calamity. My latest advice to-
day is from a farmer near CaSSeltOn.
about one of the richest points in the
valley. He had 1,200 acres, caught just
in the bloom. and has tried to save a
little by cutting and threshing. The
yield is three to four bushels an acre,
the price 25 cents buShel-S25, 600
dropped by one man. 1t is this catch
ing in the bloom that accounts for the
wreck of so much of the wheat. Had it
been earlier OF later, he would have got
something to pay working expenses. |
have seen the early-sOwn half OF ileld
wrecked, while that of later growth is a
very fair yield. From the returns col
lected | see that Brown county. on the
Jim river, hitherto one of the choicest
badly struck as many parts OF
pad III VoJIpU (Nr0t0n
station in this county used to
be reckoned the banner station of the
whole United States for its delivery of
fine wheat, and the counties in the
United States that make 100000 bush
els of wheat in one year may almost be
reekoned on the fingers of one hand.
Brown was last year one OF these coun-
ties, with something over the even
100000 This year its shortage is $780,
900, so that it will come out all right.
Grand Forks. with last year 100000
bushels, this year loses 3.276, 200. Walsh,
with 1927 900 in 1887, has lost 1905, 900
in 1883. Cass, with 4,741, 900 in 1887, has
lost 9, 1873, 900. Pembina, with 4,062, 900
in 1887, has lost 2,6e4,000. Trail, The
fifth county of the Red river proper, is
short one-half of its last years yield,
making total shortage on the
west. side only of the valley. for
five counties, of 12,750,000 from last
years yield of 21,750,000. On the Min
nesota side the total crop area is much
less, but the proportion of loss is per-
haps quite as great-the Crocksten dis
trict being as bad as any, if not
THE VERY WORST.
In one of the best sections of Mani
toha the loss is about as serious pro-
portionally as any further south, but
the proportion of loss is less over the
whole than on the south side of the
line. In the Canadian territories lying
west of Manitoba there has not been
such crop for five years, with very lit
tie injury from frost, and Manitoba has
come out equally we'll, but the wheat
crop of those wide regions is not yet
equal to the produce of two Red River
diminution of wheat growing on
account of this very severe check.
Lightning seldom strikes twice in tho
same place, and it will not be possible
even if it were desirable to change
much from the present methods of
farming. More stock of all sorts will
be brought in, but it will take more
than one bad year to check wheat grow
ing OH those fertile plains. 1t is bad
policy to have all our eggs in one
basket. but the temptation is great and
we will venture again. One other good
crop will almost level up the losses of
this year to all who can hold out. There
will be good many wrecked fortunes,
''but hope springs eternal in the human
breast" and next spring we will sow in
hope just the same as we have done i'll
the years that have gone by.
RUSSIA Is HARD Up.
A New Loan Will Be FIoated on