Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1901-08-31
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For theTimes- Republican.
corn crop of Iowa for 1901 is mere guess
work; this. whether it comes from
Brother Sage, the best authority in
Iowa, or from the farmer who judges
what the whole crop will be from look
iEg over his eighty acre field of corn
makes this estimating business much
like the results of a whirl of a wheel q
fortune. If Jack Frost delays his first
annual visit till, say, Sept. 20, or Oct 1
thousands of acres of late planted corn
will mature. These fields are now green
with big stalks and ears perfect and
large. Much of it has not got beyond
me roasting ear stage. This referring
TO northwestern Iowa. And to illustrate
the folly of attempting to estimate the
corn crop of Hancock county. one should
see the fields OF corn around this town.
Five miles north of here. west of the
railroad tracks, are hundreds of acres of
corn that with favorable conditions for
the next thirty days will go sixty TIC
lseventy-f1ve bushels to the acre. The
corn is there now. great big ears, hardly
a stalk without an ear, just beginning to
glaze. And four and one-half miles
north of here, on the west side of the
track. one can see field after field that
has not an ear in sight. The stalk is
l. md eyr, 4
it. Below here, around Belmond. and
above here, around Estherville and
Graetinger, are fields of corn, on the
river bottoms. the stalk dead and no
corn on it. These fields were killed by
the twenty-six days of hot weather. The
writer has lately spent two weeks in
Dickinson county, ridden many miles on
his bicycle thru the county, has talked
with farmers and personally examined
some corn fields where the corn was in
the tassel and "shootin' >, during the hot
! spell, and notwithstanding the assertion
OF some who claim to know that there
would be no corn in such fields wants to
state that several of such fields now
have big ears of corn that will make
forty to fifty bushels to the acre. Some
claim second tasseling process came
after the hot spell or after local show
ers. others that enough tassels escaped
the cooking process and spread the live
pollen over the field, thus furnishing the
silk with material for ears, perfect, with
ifull rows of kernels. At any rate (the
writer belonging to the now scientific
class), whatever the, process was, this
much is certain: some fields that were
! tasseled out during the three hottest
days of the longest hottest spell Iowa
ever has known now have big, matured
ears that will be safe from a visit of
Jack Frost in ten days more.
The condition of fresh vegetables in
iowa in August has not been duplicated
for thirty years, this to the writer's per
sonal, positive knowledge. Potatoes re-
tan at 40 to 80 cents a peck, cabbage at
cents a pound, onions at cents a
pound and turnips hardly to be had for
love or money. Tomatoes and water
melons surely can be classed as fruit
this year If price has anything to do
with it. Good apples retail for 80 cents
peck up this way. And the curious
sight is seen every day in these stores
OF farmers wives buying vegetables to
take out into the country.
This matter of vegetables is a severe
tax on the mechanic in town. who gem
orally has q big garden to draw from.
1t is hard on all laborers who get an in
come from wages by the day week or
month. And for an Iowan today to sit
down to an oldfashioned New England
boiled dinner is rank extravaganza.
But the farmers can afford to buy
fresh store vegetables this year Oats,
barley and wheat are netting the farm
ers all the way from 50 to s14 an acre.
Hogs and cattle, butter. eggs and poul-
try have all good prices, and it is no
rash assertion to claim that if present
prices continue the Iowa farmers will
get as much cash for the products of 1850
acres as they did in 1900.
Here is noticeable conditions: Fou,
or five years ago the writer was along
the Armstrong branch of the b.. C. r. a
n. railroad. Good quality of oats were
selling at s cents per bushel. The cars
We're full and no more to be had. The
elevators We're full and at Buffalo Cen
ter the writer saw several hundred
bushels piled on the ground with only
boards under them to keep them ont of
the dirt. And still the farmers kent on
hauling them to town, Notwithstanding
the grain dealers In many cases refused
to buy at any price. Today the farm
crs can haul their oats from the ma
chine to market and get % to 30 cents
per bushel, and they don't do it. They
are putting them in the oat bins at
home. The elevator men have hardly
enough business to keep themselves out
of mischief. One elevator man says,
We won't get any oats till prices 60
much lower" Here is an item that
shows one farmer up this way has
something to sell: He has just sold TO-
600 bushels of old corn for $1,000.
q 20 1zye4~14...1
Astounded the Editor.