The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1895-07-19
THE YIELD OF WHEAT
Estimated the Dakotas and
Minnesota Will Raise l3O,-
900 Bushels.
PROSPECT FOR GOOD PRICES
Farmers Advised Not to Sell
All Their Crop-Hay Will
Be Hay.

ST. PAUL, July 19.-The Pioneer
Press prints a three column crop re-
port and interviews with prominent
milling men of the Northwest. An
average estimate of the two Dakotas
Minnesota is 100, OOO, 900 bushels of
wheat. which should bring an average
price of 70 cents a bushel. The sum-
mary Of the report follows:
Unless present indications fail the
Northwest will this year harvest the
largest crop known since 1891. The
total acreage under cultivation is much
greater than it has ever been before,
though much less of the land has been
sown to wheat than in former years,
the farmers having at last awakened
to the fact that diversified farming is
far preferable to the old method of
planting their entire farms to wheat,
and being obliged to stand or fall by
the prices of this one cereal. Only
about As per cent of the total acreage
Of the state this year 10 in wheat, as
against IS per cen 10 years ago. The
acreage devoted to rye, barley and fax
has increased in q wonderful degree,
and there is a much greater area de-
voted to the more staple products, such
as corn, oats and potatoes.
Good Prices for Hay.
The crop in the European importing
countries is reported as being very
short, so that they will have to obtain
more wheat from the outside than they
have been in the habit of doing. In
the European exporting countries the
yield is below the average and they
will, therefore, have much less to send
to the countries that will stand in need
of wheat than they have had for the
past few years. The world must have
wheat, and with the main countries of
Europe short in their crops, America,
which in this cas means the North
west, will be looked to to fill the def
cheney. This is also true Of other crops
as well as Of wheat. About q month
ago it was reported that the wheat
crop in Russia was very short and that
the rye crop wa q total failure. Since
then reports have come in which show
that while matters in that country are
not SO bad as at first stated, still the
crops there, and the rye crop in partic-
ular, are smaller than ~they~have been
for some time past. Russia raises over
80 per cent of the rye used in the whole
world, and it is probable that this
shortage will make a very good market
for the rye raised in this country.
European Crops short.
There is also q very good prospect for
high prices for hay, the Eastern crop
and also that of Michigan, Illinois and
Wisconsin being very light.
The yield of potatoes promises to be
exceptionally large, and as this is a
product that is always in demand, it is
more than probable that the price will
be good.
1t has always been q question with
farmers whether to hold their wheat
or sell it at the first opportunity. This
year the best authorities, and there are
none better than Charles A. Pillsbury
and James J. Hill, advise what may be
termed q middle course. They advise
the wheat growers to sell q part of
their crop, enough to pay their debts
and to put them on a good, solid foot
ing, at once, and to hold the balance for
higher prices. If the entire crop is put
on the market early in the season
the market will be overstocked and the
price will consequently fall even lower
than it is at the present time. On the
other hand, if the farmers hold all
their crop until late, the price will go
up early, and then, when the elevators
OF the West are thrown open to the
world, the market will be glutted and
the object in holding over the wheat
will be defeated. There will, in all
probability, be a market at good prices
TOR all of the wheat that will be har-
vested in the three states, but it must
be put upon the market only a. it is
needed for consumption.