St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-07-29
DAMAGE BY HIGH WINDS.
CROPS AND FIELDS DEVASTATED nv
KANSAS AVID NEBRASKA.
FIGURES CANNOT GIVE Loss.

Farmers Must Import Corn to
Live Hundreds OF Square
Miles of Grain Iifeless-Set-
tiers Disheartened Abandon
Their Homes-Hot Winds More
Ruinous Than Strikes.
DENVER, Col, July 2S.-Passengers
arriving on the trains from the East re-
port wide destruction through Kansas
and Nebraska to all kinds of crops on
account of the high winds. Supt.
Campbell, of the Burlington road, says
that figures will hardly express the
damage that has been wrought within
the past week. Two weeks ago it was
estimated by experts that Nebraska had
contributed 400. 100000 bushels of corn
to the worlds product OF 1894. Mr..
Campbell prophesies that it will be
necessary to ship corn into many coun-
ties of the state in order that the farm
ers may live until another season. Hun
dreds of square miles of the finest look
ing corn hangs dry and liftless over an
extent of territory as large as the state
of Pennsylvania or New York. The re-
ports from the lines of the Union Pa
cific, Burlington. Rock Island, Misso uri
Pacific and Santa Fe are ali of the same
tenor. Passengers from the car win
doWs look out upon vast fields Of corn.9
and thousands of acres of hay rendered
absolutely worthless by the poisonous
breath of the simeon from the
sand deserts of Texas. In many
| az tbo 20 EnI +b
destruction that was borne upon the
air. and several days ago they began to
cut the corn as it stood, green in the
| fields. to be used as fodder. Thousands
of farmers stood helpless in their fields,
watching with gloomy forebodingS,
while the dreaded blast from the South
west got in its deadly work. Their only
hope is that bounte0us rains may start
another grass crop before it rs too late
in the season. Travellers also report
that the highways leading eastward
through Nebraska and Kansas are al
ready thronged with disheartened.
settlers who have abandoned their
homes and are hurrying toward Iowa
and Missouri for relief from the almost
unbearable heat. A similar scene has
not been witnessed since 1873, when the
hot winds almost depopulated Western
| Kansas.
Deserted towns and lonely houses
standing out III the naked plains are
silent witnesses of the memorable exc,
dus Of 1873. The year following came
the grasshopper plague, FROM which
1t required Kansas ten years to recover.
Railroad men look on the advent of
hot winds III Kansas and Nebraska this
year as vastly more damaging to the
railroad Interests than the recent strike.
| The strike was of short duration, but
the falling off in the crops in the region
east of the mountains will be keenly
felt by the railroads for many months
to come. The disaster will be felt in
Colorado in many ways; one of which
will be the inability of large region TO
buy coal mined In the Rocky mountains.
Colorado cattlemen have been accus-
toned to ship their cattle 10 Kansas and
Nebraska to be fattened for the market.
| With the corn crop more than so per
cent short it will be a serious matter
with the cattlemen to find fattening
ground for their stock.
Reports at the railway offices also
show that there is great danger of fires
along the railroad tracks, aud the roads
will be required to take extra precau-
tons to prevent extensive prairie fires.
The dry grass will be constant source
of danger for months to come.