Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1902-06-12
FARMING INDUSTRY.
One Wheat Crop Would Have Made
Nearly Ten Pyramids.
Some of the Immense Yields OF
mer Years-Interesting Facts
About the Poultry Product,
PIOWs, Etc.

AAO"HF 49,
Joseph, son of Jacob, had to ware
house IL good deal of wheat in the
seven fat years to carry the Egyp'
tians through the seven lean ones
The American farmers produced
enough in 1898 to make Joseph.s little
stock look like a pea in u tub. If II
had all been piled in form on the
plain of Gizeh it would have made
nine pyramids the size of the pyra'
mids of Cheops, and with the sur
plus another could have been reared
four-fifths as large. That was the
biggest American wheat crop even
recorded. 1t amounted to 6i5,l4S,IU5
bushels. grown on 44,O45,2 78 acres OF
land. Next year the yield was hight
er, and the Americans only turned OIL
seven and nine-tenths pyramids OF
wheat. In 1900 they even fell short
of that, producing only a paltry seven
and a half pyramids. stu, that
would have been a comfortable addl'
ton to Joseph's stock, and consider
ing that it was grown on a smaller
acreage than the crop of 1895 was a
rather creditable performance. The
deficiency was made up with a 2,OOO,'
600, OOO-bushel corn crop, and 2l,OOO,'
600 bushels of potatoes.
There was considerable ado over
the increase of the standing army to
100000 men. If every man IN such an
army were q good fast mixer, and
worked at it ten hours q day, the
whole force couldn't milk more thar
one-third of the cows that are now
being MIXED in this country-not to
speak of the goats. And if they
could milk them into the Chicago
drainage canal, beginning with it en-
tirely empty, they could milk it bank
full in about two weeks.
lf-all the hens in this country were
to be consolidated, like some of our
manufacturing establishments, into
one hen, and that hen were to lay
an egg with the cubic contents Of all
the eggs laid daily on American soil,
that egg would be as big as-well, it
would be q very large egg. A chlcR
Matched from it ought to be able to
neck wheat off the dome Of the ma
1ional capitol. In 1890 there were
~25S,S71,125 chickens in the country,
and during the year 819,722,916 dozen
eggs were produced and sold.
When Mr.. Reed deprecated a billion
dollar congress somebody retorted
that it was q billion-dollar country.
1t is. The millions period is no long
er adequate to express theSmagnltude
of our manufactures, our trusts, ouI
fortunes and our farming industry.
The acreage of American farms IN
1890 was greater than the combined
acres of France, Germany, Austria
Italy and British Isles. The value OF
their realty was $13 ,270,252, 649, and TIT
tools and implements on them repre-
scented an outlay Of nearly half a bli
lion more. They produced over Sj,ooo,
600. 600 worth Of food and raw material
The value of their exports in 1899 wa
1892, S11,733. or more hanhalf the value
of the entire exports of the country
bv SAP, 900, 900. The growth of this in
dustry had the most primitive begin
nings, and, has gone forward in tn
face oG the most discouraging ylcissl
tudes. says Frank NJ. Todd, in Aims
lees.
The American of the revolutionar.
period was an extremely poor farmer
Looking back on his methods and hi
work, it is hard to say which were tn
more crude, his implements or hi
ideas.
He used a wooden plow; he wa
afraid an iron one would poison tn
soil" He had not yet learned tina
CHAMBERS was contagious, and woul
work and stable healthy stock along
side stock affected by it, and wonde
what there was in the soil, air o
climate that carried them off. II
didn't understand theuse of fertilizer
and instead of spreading his bornyar
manure on his fields, he let it accuml
late around his barn until the al
proaches were impossible. Then h
dug the barn out and moved it. II
stead of rotating crops to save his sol
he planted according to the phases {
the moon. There were few sheep i
the country, and other like stock wa
poor and scanty. In Virginia the b.
lief prevailed that it would kill COW
to house and milk them in the winter
Transportation was poor and co,
r.. -. 4.,,, Tho ,Do,