Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1891-10-22
DesEuctive Weather.

The weathG OF the past few weeks
has undone much of the good that was
done by the fAe weather early In the
season in Nortl Dakota, and the farm
ers in the Northwest will suffer losses
aggregating in ne millions. The dam
age can as yet Snly be estimated, but
that the loss viii be very great there
seems no doubt.C The railroads had
made special arraAgeuents to handle a
great crop, and the farmers considered
their own plans amply Sufficient But
so great was the wheat crop that, first,
IL was almost impossible 10 hire enough
help to secure the crop, and very large
part of IL had to be left standing in the
shock. Then IL was found that the sup
ply OF thrashing machines was insult
ficient, and that caused delay which
left fully half the crop still in the fields
unthrashed when the rain came.
Rain has been general and abundant,
and IL is this which has caused the great
est loss.
At jamestown, in the North Dakota
Jim River Valley, rain and snow fell
continually for a day and a night, and
last week there was but one full days
wheat thrashing. Reports are received
of grain sproutIng in the stacks. Al
Ievll's Lake, In the northern part OF
the State, a heavy rain fell, which will
stop thrashing for several days No
grain has been stacked owing TO the
scarcity of laborers. Lakota IN. ID.
reports snow. with thrashing stopped
entirely, and fears that unless the
weather clears soon much OF the grain
will be unfit to be thraShed. In the
northern part of North Dakota there
will, however, be more loss from lack OF
laborers than from bad weather.
Northwestern Minnesota gives about
the same report as North Dakota. II
commenced raining again about Crooks
ton and continued all OF one day. There
have been only a very few days OF dry
weather in four weeks, and farmers are
getting discouraged In Traverse Coun
ty and Central Western Minnesota thu
larger portion of the wheat has not We
been thrashed and men and machines arr
greatly needed.
Colonel p. Il. Walker, OF Minneapolis
says of the situation:
II have Just returned from a tril
through that section. 1t made my hear
,he to witness the ruin. In order Il
appreciate 1t one must actually see II
There are thousands of acres o
! oahVo
utterly destroyed by the rains An
the mud-it is perfectly cxecrable. Da
after day we tramped in the slush acros
tields-slush half knee-deep. l wen
out with Government surveying part
TO establish town lines, and the rain an
mud broke up our party, and we wer
forced to abandon the work entirely
"1he reports published In the papers d
not cover half the devastation. AS ia
as the eye can reach in every direction
arc great big shocks of wheat and 1t a
would have graded No. l hard had
been thrashed out before the rains fell
Now nothing can be done. 1t is too lat
to save even modicum. Were tn
shocks in q condition to be thrashed,
would be a physical impOssibility TO d
j anything with the crop, for the reaso
that teams cannot haul the wheat to TN
/ thrashers nor haul fuel to the engines
"The difficulty in the first place aros
over getting help to do the thrashing
/ but the railway companies succeeded il
getting both men aud machine into tn
! fields When they arrived they wer
powerless The mud was so deep tha
/ the horses mired to their bellies, an
nothing can be done now until the su
/ dries out both the soil and the shocks o
wheat
at IL painful a. stsss-slS>.a isrps,.in No
/ and survey the situGtl0n. Everywher
! thrashinR machines are visible-al
/ abandoned-andt the wheat for hundred
I Of miles ruined.