The Winslow mail., 1898-11-19
OUR BIG " HEAT CROP
The Largest in the History Of the
Country =
Trustworthy Authority Places the
Assured Result at 750,000,G&0
Bushels Its Honey
VGlGe.

America has a bumper" crop of
wheat and the last Of the largest yield
lie country has ever known is ECw be-
ing harvested. The sickle was put in a
few weeks ago on the south line Of the
great wheat belt, and now the harvest
is well under way il the Dakotas. The
assured result, On the most trustWCr-
thy authority, is 80, ,0O0,CC0 bushels for
the year. OF this amount 0,CG0.000
bushels is winter wheat, and 0.O00,-
ESQ bushels the spring crop now being
cathered; an enormous yield which
ccipses, with wide margin, the 1891
crop Of Gil, Geo bushels.
These high figures mean much. In
the first place they mean a money
value Of $500, 100000, at the ruling
prices where the wheat is; they mean
that the United States has raised one
third Of the 1898 wheat crop Of the
world and they mean that the wheat
raised this year on our prairies VIII
weigh 10000, 100000 pounds. Grasp
these figures if you can. Imagine this
crop being discharged into space in u
stream the diameter Of one grain with
each grain touching the one ahead Of
il, and this with the raPidity CT the
motion of the earth on its orbit or
i II miles minute. At this rapid rate
20 years would elapse before the ell
tire crop had been discharged and was
strung along the earth's path in a
score of lines.
The productive country that has
raised this wheat extends from ocean
tC ocean and from the latitude of
southern Tennessee to the Canadian
border. Most Of the crop comes from
the broad prairies of the MississipPival-
ley, and about 10000, ,0C0 bushels of it
from the two Dakotas, whose principal
product is wheat. The crop in these
states is about twice what it was last
year, Tor one reason because there is
IN increase of about 20 per cent. in
acreage.
A busy scene is now being enacted
III these new states, where farms are
measured by the thousands CT acres,
and where wheat raising is carried on
or a scale known nowhere else in the
world. For mile after mile about the
frequent railway stations are vast
fields where grain stands three feet
high, and at the stations the conspicu-
Gus buildings are the large elevators
ready to receive the crop. AT many of
these railway towns there are enough
elevators to supply each half dozen in
Labitants with one.
The reapers have now entered into
southern Dakota, are rapidly eating
their way northward, and waving
grain is giving way to hundreds of
thousands of acres of stubble. TLis
means business for every one, and
every one is happy in consequence.
Teams are busy between the fields,
barns and stations, and the railways
are devising ways and means for NOV
ing the crop.
Tie Dakota people are learning, and
learning much, from Russian farmers
who are settling in the states, and who
understand little else than wheat
raising. They are learning how to cul-
tivate wheat at less expense than for
nerly and how to hold their grain for
Il paying market.
The entire northwest has fortunate
~ been free from devastating storms
during the growing season, and this
great factor, added to increased acre
age and better farming, has brought
a state of affairs which rrecludes all
thought of the starving farmers" of
whom we heard so much a few years
ago. These same farmers are happy
now. They are independent, because
prosperous. They are becoming cap
italists. They are no longer paying
y and 20 per cent. for money. but are
paying six per cent, so as to have
money to buy more Land on which to
raise big wheat crops.-N. Y. Herald.