Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-10-06
RURAL observations
T.R. Traveller Finds Most all the
Corn. Soft Yet Farmers
Prosper
FARMERS FAVOR THE IOWA IDEA
BirdsalIs Nomination Pleasing to
Farmers Generally and Sentiment
Promises Him an Easy Victory =
Genuine Regret That Henderson
Jumped the Track.
,ial TO Times-Republican

Special to IimeS-RepuDlicaH
= Ackley, Oct. 6--Those who are so
fortunate as to have a crib of marketa-
Bile corn stored away in northern Iowa
are in the President Baer and coal
baron class. There will be little of this
wears CROP fit to fill contracts with. Wet
weather thru the entire growing sea-
son and an early frost have reduced the
corn crop of this portion of the state to
from one-third to one-half that of an
ordinary Iowa year. "How's your corn?'
brings but one response from the farm
ers who have been husking for their
hogs and are consequently in a position
to accurately predict the yield. I'VE
will have mighty little good corn" is
the inyariable reply. We'll, how will
the crop average with ordinary years p
is the next query and the figures set by
the man who raised 1t are from one
third to one-half an average crop. In
enc field there may be patches of fair
ly good corn on the highest ground. The
lower levels of the same field may show
corn that will not yield ten bushels to
the acre and on the lowest ground II
few short yellowed stalks without an
ear among them stick up thru the mud
and water.
These poor patches cut down the
acreage and the soft ears freely
sprinkled thru even the best portions of
the yield cut down the feed value of the
crop. Farmers are almost unanimous
in the assertion that one bushel of good
solid corn will "go as far toward fat
tening steers or hogs as three of the
soft stuff. Consequently they argue that
the corn crop is not over third of an
Iowa average.
But with all this the farmers are not
whining. AS one renter expressed him.
self: I've had three mighty prosperous
years. We have all made good money
and are in shape to stand a bad season
and a short crop. But what If this had
happened three years ago." They
know this has been a most exceptional
season, the worst for forty years.
1t is like glimpse of old times to see
the lakes and ponds crop out again
where for ten years and more the land
has been dry and tillable and has raised
good crops. Here and there the Old
time sloughs and duck ponds have re-
and the blacksnakes have
come back again and show thickly and
darkly above the water. Up west of
Goldfield Owl Lake, which for years has
been a corntield,watercs CT, ME out again
and covered the growing crops of corn
and oats. in Grundy county,the gar
den of Iowa. the duck shooting is good
on ponds the beds of which had borne
crogs for the past decade. But the
farmers are not discouraged nor are the
values of farm lands decreasing On
the contrary, northeast of Goldfield
II. Grill, standing in the midst of corn
crop worth scarcely $3.50 per acre,
pointed to a farm he had recently pur-
chased from a Marshal1town man at $50
per acre. Down in Grundy, when he
tells you of the miserable corn crop
and you ask his price on his farm, he
says: 20, don't want to sell. / guess
could get pretty close to 500, tho
Il takes more than one bad season to
make an Iowa farmer sick.
Here in the Third district the farm
ers are taking huge interest in the con-
gressional succession. Speaker Hender-
sons action is universally deplored, not
in anger or resentfully, but with genu-
inc sorrow. The gray old men who
made Henderson and who have been
proud to bestow political favor and
confidence upon him are wondering pa
thetically What could have allied Hem
Gerson?' No Iowa congressman ever
inspired such personal affection among