Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1902-09-17
A BUMPER CORN CROP.
We Can Supply the World this Year, and
Next, Too.

In the history of cereal productions
there has never been suoh an enormous
crop of corn as is being gathered in the
United States this year. 1t will aggre-
gate 1850, ,951 900 bushels, or more than
the entire corn crop of tho 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 total failure
in 1908.
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 fur
thor South will not have finished husk-
ing the golden ears standing in their
fields of brown. They know it makes
little difference so far as prices are con-
cerned. A record of the sales of corn
for !,the past ten years shows that the
highest prices are obtained in late fall
and winter, and that prices are 25 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
ripening in the fields, just few weeks
there have been no droughts in the corn
sections. Nor have there been floods of
a general nature. The weather, in fact,
has been ideal for corn growing. The
stalks have grown rank, tho ears have
spread and heightened until 12-inch ears
and 15-foot stalks are not uncommon in
the corn belts. In Kansas they are tell
ing of farmers getting lost in their corn
fields.
The crop for 1901 fell short of the ex-
pected yield by 40 per cent. ; this year it
goes ahead of the predicted yield by 10
or Is per cent Eight States last year
did not raise enough corn for home con-
sumption. The exports fell short S,000,-
600 bushels. The yield was only Is bush
els to the acre and 100000 acres were
not cut at all. In 1915 the average yield
was 28 bushels to the acre, except in
Kansas, where it was 40 bushels. Kan
sas last year averaged ten bushels or less
to the acre. The Sunfower State always
| runs to the extremes.
The acreage of corn this year is much
| larger than last. 1t is 8 per cent. more
or 102, ,s69,S28 acres. This large acreage
is duo to the fact that three and one half
million acres of wheat, sown the pre-
! ceding fall, had been frozen out and
| were ploughed up for corn. Conse-
| quently, these 100000 acres, which are
| largely in Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa,
will not yield their owners much profit.
The cost of the wheat ploughed up was
| SO an acre, and the cost of the corn So.
The yield must therefore be above 80
| bushels and yield 40 cents bushel, to
profit at all. This is improbable. So 8
per cent of the corn crop will yield moth
| ing above the expense of sowing and
| gathering it.
The principal corn States are those of
| the Middle and Central States. The
summers are too long for good corn pro-
| ductiOn in the South, and it is too
droughty in the far southwest for certain
yield. Illinois is the leading corn.State,
but Kansas, Iowa, Indiana, Missouri and
Nebraska are big corn producers.
| Corn is handled in much different
manner than dozen years ago. Then
the man did all; now machinery does it.
Little corn is husked by hand; in fact
most of it is gathered as is wheat,
| husked by machinery and shelled by a
| patent sheller. The cob is ground up
with the fodder and makes good feed; in
| fact the fodder is considered l per cent
of the crop. There are cornfields in
Kansas and Oklahoma that cover 5000
TO 5000 acres, and from ten to twenty
corn harvesters run through them, one
following another. The corn stalks,
with the ears are stacked in rows by
these harvesters, later they are hauled to
q thrasher or shelter, the ears torn from
the stalk and the grain from the cob.
The cost is very small.
| In 1900 the United States raised 2,000,-
100000 bushels; in 1901, 100000
600. In 1896 the crop was near
ing 2,285, ,0O0,00 bushels. Last year, be-
cause of the scarcity, corn sold at ex-
cessiVe prices. In Kansas the farmers
obtained 90 cert a bushel for the crop.
The average price was GO cents. The
whole crop sold for 1920, ,555, ,763. In
1900, when the crop was twice as large,
the price obtained by the farmers was
$620,210, 10. The value of the corn
crops last year was $40 an acre, while in
one-$6 was the average price obtained
by the farmers. In 1880 corn sold in
some parts Of the United States for 1C
cents bushel, the lowest price ever
known.
The corn crops of the United States
are worth from $GO0,O 900 to $800,000,.
600 every year. The exports average
from $l75, 900 to $500, 900, 90 0 annual.
ly, or One-teDth of the yield. Only 25 pel
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. The Middle West
States are the principal corn producers.
Illinois Is the principal exporter.
There are about 5 100000 farms in the
United States, of which 5000, 600 produce
corn. The average cost of producing an
acre of corn is $5.73, divided in this
way: Seed, n cents; planting, 78 cents
cultivating, $1.02; husking and putting
in crop, $1.1G; wear and tear of tools, 2t
cents; rent of land or interest on value
$2.47.
The average cost of production per
bushel is ID cents and during the last l(
years the average price of corn, to the
farmer, has been 26 cents. The average
yield In 10 years is 20 bushels per acre
henco the profit upon corn land per acre
can be reckoned at $2.40. This is less
than the profit on wheat, and for that
reason corn, which has for many years
been popular crop, Is slowly giving
way to whoat. But it will be great
while before the United States ceases tc
be the principal corn raising country OF
the wcild.-New York Sun.