Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-07-14
Public Opinion on Iowa Subjects
as Reflected i'll the Iowa
Newspapers.
The News Of Iowa From Hun.
dreds Of Different Towns
end Communities.
INACCURATE CROP REPORTS.
/

lsSiouA NsllS IlipulIS.I
The Tribune had occasion about ;
year ago to call attention to the mac
curacy and worthlessness OF the 1owi
weather crop reports. 1t has fouhe
occasion to refer again to the neea o.
reform in this department.. The crol
service of MIR. Sage needs to have some
independence injected into it. AS pre-
sented it is too much of an organ.
| Recent estimates of crop conditions
/! in the state warrant these suggestions
| The crop service costs the state con-
siderable money each year. 1t is pre-
sumed to be a statistical compilation
as accurate in matter and conclusions
as possible. The presumption is need
| lessly violent. Its editor could get bet
ter information about crop conditions
by interviewing Il dozen travelling men
each week than he manages to compile
from his alleged expert advisors.
For example, the report for the week
ending July found that crop prospects
had been materially improved in the
preceding seven days. Mr.. Sage seems
to be the only man in Iowa who could
discover such a roseate condition IL is
universal testimony, the testimony OF
farmers, of travellers of business men
of the railroad reports-usually the
very best of all-that the week endlnS
July brought deterioration III the aN-
erage condition of Iowa crops. 1t is not
necessary that Iowa misrepresent these
things Iowa crops never need an apoi-
opy. They can stand the truth, and the
truth is what the state pays for When
it maintains the weather crop service.
49,
IN THE CORNER OF MISSOURI.
IShenandoah Sentinel
G.. l.. Sharp has just returned from a
visit to his son-in-law at Watson, Mo
Great crops down there. Corn is sure
of as bushels to the acre. Oats heavy
and as high as mans shoulder. Ii
must be rich soil there for land sells
at 500 and s11O per acre. Mr.. Sharp
tells of one quarter section without q
an acre for. But they are we'll to dc
people who have enough money now
and they reason that if they sold IT
they would not know what better to
do with the money. The country
there was settled as early as 1910 anG
the land is immensely fertile for it IL
old Missouri river drift-the deposits
of untold ages. Mr. Sharp conversed
with one old settler, a Tennesseean who
came before the war and bought a
piece of land of a pro- slavery man who
afterwards turned out a jayhawker
In '61 when the war opened banks
were failing and prices We're extreme
ly low and no sale for farm products,
the purchasers failed to make pay
ment, and the sheriff came and move0
him onto an unbroken so, the own
er of which told him he could have all
he raised if he would break it, He
accepted the offer and raised enormous
crops of corn so that at the end of two
years he had 5000 bushels in crib
worth one dollar Il bushel. He was
able to buy the so and few years
later bought back the old farm from
which he had been lifted by the sher-
if, where he still lives independents
and rich, while the jayhawker who
foreclosed upon him was lost in the
whirlpool of border warfare