The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-10-07
A BUMPER CORN CROP
Appears to Be the Largest in ths
 country's History.

Corntry's History.
 New York Sun.
 In the history of cereal productions there has never been such an enormous crop of corn as is being gathered in the United States this year. It will aggre- gate 2,5S9, ,s61, 900 bushels, or more than the entire corn crop of the world for 1901. The corn raised in the United States will be sufficient to supply the needs of the world for this and next year. even should there be a total fail ure in 1903.
 Corn harvesting is now in progress in the United States, and not until snow flies in December will this enormous task be ended. Even then fArmers further South will not have finished husking the golden ears standing in their fields of brown. They know it makes little diff ference so far as prices are concerned. A record of sales of corn in the past ten years shows that the highest prices are obtained in late fall and winter and that prices are 3 per cent below the average immediately after the gathering of the crop begins in the early autumn.
 Last year the corn burned as it stood rfpening in the fields, just a few weeks before it had matured. But this season there have been no droughts in the corn sections. Nor have there been any floods of a general nature. The weather, in fact. has been ideal for corn growing. The stalks have grown rank, the ears have spread and heightened until twelve inch ears and ffteen-foot stalks are not uncommon in the corn belts. In Kansas they are telling of farmers getting lost in their corn fields.
 The crop of 1901 fell short of the ex- pected yield by 70 per cent ;this year it goes ahead of the predicted yield by 10 or 15 per cent. Eight States last year did not raise enough corn for home consump- ton. The exports fell short S,000,0O0 bush els. The yield was only sixteen bushels to the acre, and 100000 acres were not cut at all. In 1898 the average yield was twenty-eight bushels to the acre. except in Kansas, where it was forty bushels. Kansas last year averaged ten bushels to the acre. The Sunfiower State always runs to the extremes.
 The acreage of corn this year is much larger than last It is 3 per cent more, or l02, ,86S, ,92S acres. This large acreage Is due to the fact that 3500,000 acres of wheat, sown the preceding fall, had been frozen out and were plowed up for corn. Consequently these 100000 acres, which are largely in Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa, will not yield their owners much profit, if any. The cost of the wheat plowed up was $6 an acre and the cost Of the corn $5 The yield must therefore be above thirty bushels and yield 40 cents a bushel to profit at all. This is improba- ble. So per cent of the corn crop will yield nothing above the expense of sow- ing and gathering 1t.
 The principal corn States are those of the Middle and Central States. The sum- mers are too long for good corn produc- ton in the South and it is too droughty in the far Southwest for certain yields. Illinois is the leading corn State, but Kansas, Iowa, Indiana, Missouri and Ne braska are big corn producers.
 Corn Is handled in a much different manner than a dozen years ago. Then the man did all: now machinery does 1t Little corn is husked by hand in fact, most of 1t is gathered as in wheat, husk- ed by machinery and shelled by patent sheller The cob is ground up with the fodder and makes good feed; in fact, the fodder is considered 1 per cent of the crop. There are corn fields in Kansas | and Oklahoma that cover 5000 to 5,00O acres, and from ten to twenty corn har- vesters run through them, one following | another The corn stalks with the ears, l are stacked in rows by these harvesters; later, they are hauled to thresher or | SnelleT the odES tUiH lrOti tHe cldiA ohN the grain from the cob. The cost is very small. .,- .4 In 1900 the United States raised 1000, GOO. 600 bushels of corn; in 1901, l,60o, ,o0o GOO bushels. In 1896 the crop was near to the present bumper yield. making 2,2S5. 900. 900 bushels. Last year, because of the scare ity, corn sold at excessive prices. In Kansas the farmers obtained 90 cents a bushel for the crop. The average price was 60 cents. The whole crop sold for 1928, ,555, 16s. Tn 1899, when the crop was twice as large. the price obtained by the farmers was 629 76s. The value of the while in 1s96-the greatest corn year prior to this one-sS was the average price obtained by the farmers. In 1899 corn sold in some parts of the United States for 10 cents bushel, the lowest price ever known.
 The corn crop of the United States are worth from $500. 000 600 to $900, 000, 900 every year. The exports avere ge from $175, ,000 900 to $2Oo, ,00O. GOO annually, or one-tenth of | the yield. Only 25 per cent of the corn raised is exported from the States where it is grown. Some States never raise enough corn to supply the home needs. corn producers. Illinois is the principal l exporter.
 There are about 5.ooo,OO0 farms In the
 United States, of which 100000 produce corn. The average cost of producing an acre of corn is s5.73. divided this way:
 Seed, n cents planting, 7s cents; culti- vating. sl.02; husking and putting in crop, $1,16; wear and tear of tools, g cents; rent of land or interest on value. $2T. The average cost of production per
 bushel is 14 eents and during the last ten years is twenty bushels per acre, hence the profit upon corn land per acre can be reckoned at $240 This is less l than the profit on wheat. and for that reason corn. which has for many years been a popular crop. Is slowly giving way to wheat. But 1t will be a great while before the United States ceases to cai si. z