Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1891-10-14
WIDESPREAD RUIN.
Snow and Rain Destroy the
Wheat Crop.
TERRIBLE BLOW TO THE FARMERS.

Magnificent Fields of the Cereal a Total
Loss. and the story the Same Over q
Great Expanse of Country-Descrip-
tion of the Ruin by Man Who Has
Seen It-want of Help the Primary
Cause of the Loss.
ST. PAUL. Oct. lit is was showing
from S.. Paul to Bismarck last night.
The fall has been very heavy in portions
of northern Minnesota and North Da-
kota, and all correspondents report that
threshing is at standsull with very
slight prospect that it can be resumed
this week. There has, in fact, been al
most no threshing done in the last three
weeks, and water is standing from three
inches to foot deep on thousands of acres
of wheat fields. 1t is the consensus of
opinion among elevator men that not less
than 100000 bushels of wheat will b,
left to rot in the fields
Made His Heart Ache.
Il have just returned from trip
through the Red River valley said Col.
T. Il. Walker, of Minneapolis. last even
ing, "and it made my heart ache to wit
ness the ruin. In order to appreciate it
one must actually see it. There are
thousands of acres of wonderful wheat
fields almost utterly destroyed by tie
rams. Aud the mudi 1t is perfectly exc
cradle. Day after day we tramped in
slash across fields-slush half-knee deep. |
went out with a government surveying
party to establish town lines, and the
rain and mud broke up our party. and
we were forced 70 abandon the work en-
tirely.
Don't Do the Subject Justice.
"The reports published in the papers do
not half cover the devastation. As far as
the eye can reach in every direction are
great big shocks of wheat, and ii all would
have graded No. l hard had it been
threshed out before the rain fell Now
nothing can be done 1t is too late TO save
even a modicum. Were the shocks in
condition to he threshed out it would be
a physical impossibility to do anything
VIII the crop for the reason that teams
cannot haul the wheat to the threshers,
nor haul fuel to the engines
Caused by Lack of Help.
THE difficulty in the first place arose
over getting help 70 do the threshing. but
the railway companies succeeded in get
ting both men and machines into the
fields. When they arrived they were pow
evless- The mud was so deep that the
horses mired to their bellies, and nothing
can be done now until the sun dries out
both the soil and the shocks of wheat. 1t
is painful to stand on, prominence ard
survey the situation. Everywhere thresh-
ing machines are visible, ali abandoned,
and the wheat for hundreds of miles
ruined"
Grain prouting in tbs Stacks.
1. VN.I--
Jim river valley, rain and snow fell Mon
day night, and it was showing yesterday.
Last week there was but one full days
wheat threshing. Reports are received of
grain sprouting in the stacks. AT DEVILS
Lake in the northern part of the state
heavy rain fell yesterday, which will stop
threshing several days. No grain has
been stacked, owing to The scarcity of
laborers.
1t Is Everywhere the Same.
Lakota, y. D.. reports snow, threshing
stopped entirely and fears that unless the
weather clears soon much grain will be
unfit to thresh. In the northern part of
North Dakota there will, however, be
more loss from lack of Iaborers than fro n
bad weather. Northwestern Minnesota
gives about the same report as North Da