The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1900-05-06
IMMENSE WHEAT CROP.
The West Never Had Finer Conditions on
the First Of May.
NEARLY FIVE MILLION ACRES IN KANSAS
Most Promising wheat Crop Pros
poets Ever Known at This Season
of the Year.

Kansas will go into the month Of May
with the most promising crop prospects
that were ever known at this season of the
year. The wheat on almost 5000 900 acres
i waving in the wind a foot to two feet
high, with plenty OF moisture in the
ground, and perfect crop conditions on
nearly every acre of the entire area. Moth
Ing adverse has happened to the crop 60
far this year. There are no destructive
insects in the fields There has been no
winter killing, and no damage to the
plant from any other cause, and Kansas
100000 bushels of wheat-how much
more no one will ever know even If the
crop should maintain to maturity its pres
ent perfect condition, for when crop es-
Inmates reach such high figures the crop
reporter has to stop short for want OF a
creduous public to believe him. Kansas
at this present moment promises to rival
the yield per acre Of the ntensiyely cul-
tiyatsd fields of England, where an aver
age crop is about thirty bushels to the
acre. Kansas has record-oIhcial--o
twenty-five bushels per acre over the en-
tire wheat area of the State and it is per-
haps injudicious to expect anything better
than that, but all the same if there should
be no setback in the crop in the next six
weeks, the State will smash all it's former
records both in yield per acre and in ag-
gregate production. The biggest wheat
crop Kansas ever raised was $4,000, 600
bushels in 1892. That was the official es
innate, but those who know something OF
the immense amount of wheat that was
shipped out of the State that year have
always believed that the crop was 10G-
900, 000 bushels There are nearly a mil
lion more acres OF wheat now than in
1892 and the conditions are finer. No one
ever saw such vast extent of wheat in
perfect condition as is to be found in Kan
sas this year. Southern Nebraska and Ok
lahoma are just as good. The aggregate
wheat area of the three sections is over
100000 acres and the aggregate produe-
tion of wheat in this fine Kansas City ter
ritory now promises to exceed $50, 600
bushels-enough to supply nearly half the
people OF the United States with bread
for year.
1t is not to be forgotten, of course, that
two months Will elapse before the whole
! Kansas wheat croD reaches its maturity
/ in less time than that. But the existing
conditions relieve the State from all fear
as to the outlook until the middle of May
and moderate rains in May and early in
] June Will give the State-and Oklahoma
and Nebraska as wella crop of whea!
that will crowd all the machines and
workmen obtainable, 90 gather it, and will
I tax the railroads to their utmost capacity
/ to haul it to market. 1t is the greeest
] NNh hn hac az
/ seen.
! Every man who travels through Central
Kansas by rail comes SACK with euthusi-
asn over the fine prospects There is
/ belt of six counties through which the
Santa Fe road runs-4Marion, Mcpherson,
/ Rice Barton and Rush--which have near
ly 100000 acres of wheat and the trav-
! eer does not see much through the car
windows for $50 miles except the rich
green of the wheat fields. Including this
belt of counties and eleven more lying
north and south of them, there are seven
teen counties in Central Kansas which
have 100000 acres of wheat, more than
half the entire wheat acreage Of the 105
counties of the state. These seventeen
counties have more wheat area than. the
two States of Illinois and Missouri to-
gether.
The greatest wheat county in Kansas IL
Sumner, with 294, 900 acres. The county
which comes nearest to being a continuous
wheat field is Rice 1t is one of the small
est counties in the State, but of it's 100000
acres there are 162 600 planted in wheat.
There is probably not an equal area any
/ where in the world excepting, possibly. in
the Northwest, where single farms are
thousands OF acres in extent. that has as
large a proportion of It's total area in
wheat as Rice county has A full crop
there this year will be equivalent to over
1000 bushels CT wheat for each family in
the courtyard Rice county is about as
thickly populated as any other agricul-
4 tural part of Kansas.
Such wheat crop as the West promises
to raise this year will insure a continue
tion of the present good times in this see
ton of the country. An enormous crop OF
wheat of course can not be marketed
without causing low prices, unless 1t
should happen that small crops are mar
vested over an extensive area in some
other part of the world but thirty-bush-
ell yield per acre with wheat worth 40
cents is much more profitable than M
teen bushel crop that sells for 80 or 60
cents a bushel.
The farmers Of the West will keep, for
future contingencies, a larger proportion
OF this years crop than they ever did OF
any former harvest. The imposslDillty OF
threshing such a big crop with the facili-
ties at hand will compel the stacking of a
large part OF it. The threshers VIII be
busy for many months with the wheat crop
II II turns out as we'll as it promises now
10 do But aside from this compulsory
holding Of a large part of the crop, thous-
ands OF farmers will consider wheat at
low prices as good an asset as they can
possess, Just as they have held 10 their
corn crop for the past year because they
did not need to sell 1t.
Tho present prospect is Tor the biggest
wheat erop that the country ever produced,
thanks TO the growing conditions west OF
the Missouri river. The farther East one
goes the poorer are the wheat conditions
Ohio Indiana and Michigan Will raise ut
lie over half crop. But Kansas prom
ises To more than make up for the dell
clencies in these three States. Pennsyl-
vania has but a moderate prospect. IN
The great Northwestern States the spring
seeding has been done under most faVora'
HE conditions though there Is some com
nIaint OF deficient moisture In North pa
kota viewing the situation as Whole,
however there is nothing now IN s,ght %
prevent the largest aggregate production
tbst ths country has ever had.
Abroad conditions are not SO COCO,
France. next TO the United States me
rreatest wheat nation. promises to have 2
deticiency OF 5O.0oo,oO bushels. ,, tnu,a,