Waterbury evening Democrat., 1895-08-19

F~<S S4H@SSIMS uiSSSSG IuS U ulISu CVaJeS has been blessed with for many years, far exceeding anything since the crop of 1891 and outmeasuring even that by about 300, ,0CO, 900 bushels According to the sharps who make estimates\ of crops, it would require 2,35O, 900, ,000 bushel baskets to hold the enormous crop expected this year, while that of 1891, though much more bountiful than any that had been harvested for long time previously, amounted to only 2,060, 154 ,000 bushels. It may be that the reader fancies he understands what these figures mean, but the chances are against it. Suppose that all the corn to be harvested in 1895 were put into bushel baskets, and then suppose the baskets were ranged in a straight row.
 Each basket would take up about 1S inches, so that 3,520 baskets could be set along line mile in length. It would then require straight stretch of 667, ,613 miles upon which to set all these bushel baskets ill line. Possibly that looks like big story, but you can prove it for yourself by dividing the total number of bushels by the number of bushels that can be set ill mile.
 Assuming that you have gone through this little arithmetical calculation and found my figures to be correct, you might next consider with me where such a straight line could be found If it were started at the earth and run off into space it would reach a good deal more than twice as far as from here to the moon, which is but 240, 900 miles away, according to the astronomers. Of course the attempt to run the line into space would not work and obvi- ously it could not be laid out on the little ball which we inhabit and on which all this corn has been raised, for its circumference is only 24,000 miles, perhaps little less. To simplify the calculation we will assume the distance to be just that If lot of men were
 set to work ranging the baskets in
 TOW at the equator, where the earth | circumference is greatest, they would
 find, after they had so ranged S4, ,4S0, 900 of the baskets, that they had made
 a complete circuit of the globe. Then | if they went on with the work, they could repeat this circuit 26 times, mak- | ing 27 circles of bushels of corn i'll all, and still have enough surplus baskets | to reach 19,613 miles on the twenty eighth circuit. As each TOW of baskets would be IS inches wide the total l width of tho belt of bushels thus created would extend over 4S6 inches or 401a l feet, where there were only 27 rows. | Along the 9,613 miles, where there l would be 2S rows. the belt would be 42 feet wide. It will readily occur to the l ingenious lover of figures that still other | calculations might be made by which 1 the magnitude of this enormous corn crop could be brought home to the mind l of tAe reader. They need not be entered
 into here, though if any reader is de-
 sirous of exercising himself in this | direction, the writer would suggest that
 a bushel of corn be shelled by hand, the | time required noted and the number of
 centuries it would take one man to shell
 this crop unaided by machinery. With | out having entered into the matter at
 all it seems quite likely to the writer
 that before the lucl1less individual who
 had undertaken this task had finished
 it, he would be of an age compared
 with which that of Mcthuselah would
 be youthful in the extreme.
 There arc a number of other relations
 in which to consider this crop which
 require less tedious calculations. For
 instance, if the farmers receive on an
 average, either for the corn or the pork
 or beef into which it is transformed,
 cash amounting to 80 cents bushel,
 the total amount of money to be turned
 over to them for this crop will yield the
 enormous sum of $7O5, ,OOO, ,0OO-that is, l abOut SlO for each individual ill the
 United States, reckoning the population