Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-03-04

| not injure wheat If the roots of the
plant are we'll covered with dirt. The
fact that there was little high wind
early in the winter had much to dc
with saving the wheat from damage
When the ground is dry a high wind
soon blows the dirt away from the
wheat roots and leaves them exposed
to the air. Then, if cold snap fol-
lows. considerable damage is likely to
result.
This year. however. there has been
no wind and the wheat has been We'll
protected. During the latter part OF
January the snow began falling and
now there is good blanket of snow
all over the wheat belt. So long as
the snow covers the fields there is
no danger of the cold weather killing;
wheat and the snow is now SO deep
that it probably will stay on the fields
until danger or zero weather is past.
When it thaws it will soak slowly into
the ground and pack the dirt firmly
around the rots so that the March
winds will not blow it away.
In commenting upon the present
condition of the wheat, Secretary Co
burn of the Kansas state board of ag-
riculture said recently:
I'VE have not sent out for any re-
cent information. but 50 far as we
have any advices the condition of the
growing winter wheat is about all
that could be desired. There may be
fields here and there, as there always
are. not exactly as their owners would
have them, some from over pasturing
or, ca, f,c, r,tl, I,,t
orally speaking the outlook at this
time of year has seldom been moro
promising.
The returns from our correspon-
dents during December indicated a
probable increase in acreage sown of
about IL per cent, which would mean
that Kansas now has approximately
100000 acres of growing wheat in the
condition suggested. Much of the lar
ger portion of this is is under spread
of evenly distributed snow from five to
ingtwelve inches in depth, and more is
falling every day or two, all of which
means Unreasonable presnt good and
future promise. What the harvest
may or may not be is beyond any
mans ken.
If any class of men are wearing, or
are justified in wearing, an expansive
smile 1t is made up of the fortunates
who have broad acres in Kansas
blanketed with rank growth of Win
ter wheat under a comforter-coverlet
of kindly snow, and Kansas seems to be
full of EN-"
Secretary Coburn never prognosti-
Gates. Most men in his position would
ey;x al
yield will be. Mr.. Coburn never does
that. He isn't a prognosticator. nor
guesser Many people have attempted
to get him to give an estimate on fu-
ture crop, but he invariably turns
them down. He waits until the crop
is harvested and then counts the BUSH
els
But Mr. Coburn furnishes the fig
ures and facts of existing conditions.
and other people can do all the guess
ing they want to. Taking the figures
on the present wheat acreage, which
Mr.. Coburn gave out short time ago
as 100000 acres, and figuring the
average yield as it was last season,
which was trifle above seventeen
bushels an acre, the next Kansas
wheat crop will run " million bush
els above the 100 million mark. This
IS one-siXth as much as the entire
United States produced last year.
bushels an acre is by no
means an extra large yield. 1t is good
Tor an average. but Kansas has done
even better in years when the acreage
has not been so Jorge.
The last year the wheat crop had to
.un the gauntlet of all sorts of buga-
Doos-winter freezing, the Hessian fly +
he cinch bug, dry weather, wet |
weather., the wheat louise, and finally
ust before harvest heavy rains and
high winds come and much of the I
wheat blew down. Then there was
learth of harvest hands and farmers /
we're afraid their wheat was going to
waste. But Notwithstanding all these
'scares,' which We're enough to give
In average wheat crop the dumb I
lgue,' the wheat that was blown down
up and the Kansas farm
II managed to gather in a little matter
If 80 million bushels of the finest ever
largest crop ever raised
n any state in the history of the world.
But if next years crop has no more /
difficulties or scares to contend with
han the half dozen or so named Kan
las will come to the front with 100 I
million bushels of wheat.