Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1895-12-05
FARMERS BULLETIN
PRIME THINKS THINGS ARE
LOOKING. UP.
BUTNO BOOM CAN BE FOUND
The Grower and His Ability to Hold
His Crops-Morton Makes Report
Potatoes as a Stock Food-Cribbing
Corn and Other Matters Of Agri-
cultural Import.

S. T. K. Prime, of Dwight, ILL.,, says:
The writer has just finished a jour-
ney from st. Louis to New York city,
passing through, en- route, the central
portions Of illinois, Indiana, Ohio,
Pennsylvania and western New York,
Atlanta, through northern and central
Illinois, also through the entire length
of Indiana, covering portions of east
ern Tennessee and Kentucky, as well
as parts Of the state of Georgia, re-
turning to Chicago, and from there to
Minneapolis. The impressions made
from this extended journey are from
business, crop and railroad stand
point.
Over this vast area, comprising as
it does all the varied interests which
go to make up our commercial situa-
ton, I found in no point what we call
a boom, but on every side, in town,
city and country, every evidence of
solid and permanent improvement
based upon the result of the great food
crops made in 1895, and also the re-
fle1 influence of the good prices re-
ceived early in the season for the re-
serves Of wheat, corn and cats Of the
crops Of 1898 and 1894. 1t is all folly
and nonsense to say that farmers do
not receive the benefit of good prices
as result of speculation and sudden
advance in prices. This year this sit
uation has been general and not excep-
tiOnal.
l am satisfied, more today than at
any time since the corn crop matured,
with the statement that | made nearly
sixty days ago that a two thousand
million crop of corn will be the out
side production of 1895; that the win
ter wheat crop, both in quantity and
quality, was practically a failure; that
the crop for '95 and '96 starts out in
poor condition; that the spring wheat
crop is probably one of the largest
ever made in the history of the coun-
try. The most significant fact that
has come under my notice this season
in connection with this crop is that in
all the old territory where wheat has
been grown successfully for period
of years there has been very decided
falling off i'll yield this season, and the
aggregate of the crop has been made
from the wheat grown On the new
lands in the extreme portion of the
spring-wheat area of North Dakota;
hence revenues on the railroads in
Minnesota and South Dakota on wheat
have reached their highest point. On
those roads which have extended into
the northern areas the receipts have
increased, the one balancing the
other; in other words, the spring
wheat receipts, for a few years at least,
are likely to hold their own.
We have heard a great deal of talk
this fall of the scarcity of cars to
move the crops this fall and spring."
never anticipated any such scarcity
of cars either at the present or in the
near future. The permanent prosper
ity of this country is based upon the
fact that every year adds to the num-
Der of farmers who are able to hold
their crops until prices are in har-
mony with their own ideas of what it
costs to produce them. A well-to-do
FARMER asks LOT uo DeIIeT iHVeStIueuL
than the products of his farm safely
stored and held at home. This fall, in
the older and more thiCkly settled
farming states, farmers are buying
both oats and corn and storing them
as an investment. There never has
been so much lumber hauled in sin
gle fall east and north of the Missis
sippi and Missouri rivers for building
corn-cribs as during the last sixty
days. I am not looking, until prices
advance, for any large movement of
corn this winter.