The Opelousas courier., 1895-11-30
CONDITIONS IN NEBRASKA.
Corn Promises a Large Yield, Except In
the States Garden Spot.

the States Garden Spot.
A recent McCook Neb.) dispatch says:
On crossing the Missouri river rum
ming to Lincoln, the Burlington lane
agents party found a prospect which,
from an agricultural standpoint, could
not be excclled. Corn is luxuriant and
sturdy and every stalk shows large
sized ears sticking out from it. 1t is SO
far advanced that the uninitiated could
be made to believe very readily that it
is past all harm from any source. Not
w%ithstanding its fine appearance, how-
ever, it is not yet out of danger of
frost, and will not be for at least two
weeks.
A fine crop of oats has been reaped in
this section. Much of it is still in the
shock and a good deal of it has been
stacked. 1t is thrashing out from thir-
ty to fifty bushels to the acre and will
average about forty. The wheat crop
has all been harvested, and farmers are
now busy blowing their land prepare
tory to putting in another crop of win
ter wheat.
Leaving Lincoln the outlook is much
less promising. Between Waverly and
Fairmont, a distance of sixty miles, is
a stretch of country which has usually
been described as the garden spot of
Nebraska. Crops have always been
abundant here, however poorly they
may have been in other parts OF the
state. Last year and this year have
been the only known exceptions to this
rule. Somehow this belt has suffered
severely this year. 1t has rained
copiously on all sides of it and all
around it, but the clouds refused to
give it a drop of moisture until too late
to save the corn crop. For a stretch of
country sixty miles long and sixty
miles wide the corn crop is a compare
tive failure. 1t will only run from a
quarter to half a crop, averaging as a
whole about one-third an ordinary
crop.
Oats have not Jared SO badly. They
are thrashing out from ~thirty-five to
forty bushels an acre. Heavy rains fell
over this section at the end of last week.
They came too late, however, to save
the bulk of the corn. Very much of it
wilted beyond redemption and d good
deal of it has already been cut for fod-
der. Wheat in this section is thrashing
out fifteen bushels to the acre.
West of Fairmont the scene again
changes and an ocean Of waving corn,
strong and luxuriant, is to be seen as
far as the eye can reach in every direc-
flow Tho oro> f,pr, lIocprc {N tho
western boundary of the state is prac-
tically made, and nothing but a killing
frost can now blight it. 1t will average
not less than sixty bushels to the acre,
and very many large fields will yield
fifty bushels.
Around McCook is where the disas-
ters of last year were most severely
felt. The gains of this year have more
than made up for the losses then sus-
tanned. The whole section of country
looks like a veritable garden, and the
people feel buoyant beyond expression.
Winter wheat is thrashing out about
twenty bushels to the acre and the
best fields are yielding thirty bushels.
Spring wheat is running from twelve
to eighteen bushels to the acre. Oats
average from fifty to sixty bushels, the
best fields, thrashing out one hundred
bushels.
Alfalfa is a new crop here with which
the people are delighted. All kinds of
live stock eat it with relish, and it is
proving to be fattening fodder. The
first year it yields one ton to the acre,
but after the third year it yields three
crops a year, which foot up seven and
one-half tons to the acre. 1t is worth in
the market five dollars per ton, but to
feed cattle the ~yesults have shown it to
be worth seventy dollars per acre. 1t
is the coming crop all along the fats of
the Republican valley.