St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-07-16
GROWING ABOUT CROP RE-
PORTS


scattered through the Northwest
which refuse to be pleased with the
enterprise of a metropolitan daily
in gathering and publishing crop
reports, no matter what the tenor Of
these may be. If these dispatches
say that there has been general
damage to the growing grain, they
Immediately set up cry that they
are manufactured to order for the
purpose of bulling the Chicago mar
ket. They then assert that the one
object of this is to enable the spec
ulators to make money before the
crop is gathered, and to produce a
disastrous reaction in prices that will
force the farmer at a later day to
sell his grain at bottom figures. If,
on the other hand, these reports
give glowing account of the excel
lent condition of the crops, and say
that the prospective yield is i'm
mense, the clamor is still greater.
1t is then charged that the purpose
of this is likewise to affect the Chi
cago market in the interest of the
Northwest will be able to furnish an
enormous amount of high grade
wheat, the market will be depressed,
and the farmer who is obliged to
sell his wheat as soon as it is har-
vested and threshed will be forced
to accept a price much lower than
the prevailing figure, when the real
facts become known.
Both of these charges are, of
course, purely imaginary. They evil
dence disposition which is in no
way creditable to those who adj
vance them. We venture to say
that those daily newspapers which
make a specially of their crop re-
ports desire nothing so much as to
publish the exact facts as far as
these can be ascertained. Speak
ing for ourselves, we know that ev-
cry effort is bent to the procure
ment of reliable statements of crop
conditions and outlook. Independent
of the fact that it is the news
papers first mission to discover the
truth and publish it, there
is no newspaper man in
this section of the country who
has one-thousandth part as much
interest in any fluctuations of the
grain market as he has in assuring
to the farmer the greatest possible
remunerat ton for the labors of the
year. Complaints against enter
prise almost invariably rise from
those who have not the means or the
ability to keep up with the process
sion. At present the daily news
paper which is published in the CEN
ter of the agricultural region is the
one means by which reliable &C
counts Of crop conditions are Sc
cured and made public.
Up to date there is nothing to
change the previous estimate of an
unusually satisfactory yield for the
current season. The situation is not
so absolutely without unfavorable
features as it was at first supposed
to be. No year brings a maximum
crop from every field, just as there
is never an absolute and universal
failure. Reports of local damage
are beginning to come in, and there
will undoubtedly be more of them.
In a few places, mostly on low
ground, the grain was injured by
frost and will be light. But these
instances are comparatively rare.
Over a considerably larger area,
grain has suffered from insufficient
moisture. Although there has been
more rain than usual during the
growing season, the ground had be-
come SO thoroughly dried out by the
protracted drought of the last year
and a half that even this abundant
rainfall did not fully satisfy the
needs of the plant. So it is reported
that there will be a light yield from
several counties where this
condition has been particular
ly marked. But, taking the
Northwest as a. whole, it re-
mains true that wheat never looked
better at this season of the year than
it does now, and that the bability
of a splendid total crop has not
been impaired.
AS far as our advices go, the pros
pect is such over the whole country
that prices are much more likely to
advance than to decline. And at
the same time, the number of BUSH
els of wheat which Minnesota and
the two Dakotas will send to mar
ket during 1895, notwithstanding a
general decrease in acreage, will be,
perhaps, as great as ever in their
history. The work of collecting and
publishing crop reports has thus far
offered encouragement to the farmer,
and has acted to his advantage in
furnishing to the markets of the
world that information by which the
price of his forthcoming product has
been so greatly increased, with a
reasonable probability of an addi-
ton yet to come.
SELL THEM TO THE PEOPLE.
The failure of New York city and of
Philadelphia to receive subscriptions
for the full amount of per cent