The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1897-05-14
THE CHANUTE TIMES.
c. S. NATION, Editor and Prop.
FRIDAY, MAY II, 1897.
r. ad Year for Calamity.

Dad Year for Calamity.
~ The calamity bowler over in
Kansas is just now having a sorry time
indeed. AS the husbandman looks out
over his fields of growing grain and
realizes that the conditions are perfect
for a record-breaking crop his ear be-
comes deaf to the lamentations of the
agitator, and a glad, unfettered
breadth Of smile breaks ever his ply
siognomy.
There never was time when the
outlook for farming appeared so en-
couraging as it does now in Kansas.
Not only are the conditions favorable
for great crops, but the markets lave
been steadily advancing for the pro-
ducts the farmer already has on hands
Kansas is today one vast corncrib,
Millions on millions of bushels of last
years crop are still unsold. From 10
cents bushel, the price has advanced
to IS cents, land there is every prospect
that it will go higher still. 1t is i'm
possible to pick up country paper
without reading an account Of some
farmer who has marketed his wheat
at the high price which obtained be-
fore the Populists discovered that
wheat and silver went up and down
together. Cattle and hogs, too, are
bringing great prices, and all the 9th
er products show substantial rise.
1t is claimed by record makers in
the business Of farming that the coun-
try has never known three consecutive
great crops. This, of course, applies
to the whole country and not to any
given area. There were big crops in
1895 and again in 1896, and according
to the rule there should be dearth
in 1897. But there are no signs of it
in Kansas, beyong the reduction of
the wheat acreage, and even with this
the government reports accord to
Kansas better wheat condition than
any Of the Middle or Western states.
The state has been soaked from one
end to the other with seasonable rains,
and the wheat harvest is very likely
to range among the record-breaking
figures of the most fortunate years. 1t
is too early to prophecy much about
corn, beyond the statement that the
conditions are absolutely perfect and
that the acreage is unusually large.
Perhaps the most favorble Of all the
conditions which exist in Kansas can
be found upon the stock ranges More
cattle may be found within the states
borders at this time than ever before
in its history. The importation this
spring from the Western states and
territories has been simply enormous.
The good prices prevailing have in
duced these importations, and there
will not be the necessity again for
such a scramble for feeders as was wit
messed last fall. The Kansas farmer
no longer sells his corn. The price of
10 cents a bushel which prevailed all
this winter was no measure of the re-
turns which he secured from his crop,
for he fed his corn to stock, and in
many instances more than thrilled
the market price. While Governor
Leedy was before the interstate COM
MERGE commission at Galveston and
testifying that the Kansas farmer was
in the depths of distress because of
the low price Of corn, the Kansas far
mer was quietly laughing in his sleeve
as he made his steers carry his corn in
to Kansas City and bring a return of
80 or more cents bushel.
So, as we at first remarked, the ca
lamity bowler does not find the Kan
sas situation suspicious for his doleful
occupation. When he goes out among
the farmers and tells them in the good
old Populistic vernacular that they
are on the "verge of moral, material
and financial ruin," they give him the
Clydesdale laugh and, with another
hitch in their gallusses, move cheerily
off among the corn rows.-Kansas
City Journal.