The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-01-18
The Great Agricultural West.

The Of6dI A9TiCbihuto oi '~~
 will now get back to where left orr last week, and as I promised will get out of Kentucky. We cross the ono river at Henderson, Kentucky, over ih'o Indiana Here we found the ohio riVer running high, in fact out of banks anu spreading all over the bottoms. Here, In the rich Ohio bottoms are some of the host corn lands to be found anywhere. Both Henderson, Ky, and Evansville Indiana, ship large quantities or corn south. These two cities are only twelVe miles apart. The corn crop, however ls not near so good in this section as usual Or, rather, Is is below an average crop Then, too, the quality is not strictly hrst class. It seems that the season or lsVz was hard one on the corn crop gener- ally, and that only few favored sec tions made fairly good crop. Then, the season has been so wet that there Is but little corn dry enough to risk shelling and shipping. We pass across the south end of Indiana, and across the Wabash, over Into Illinois. We find in both these states about the same conditions so far as to general Improvements. There is being great change made in the general appear ance of the country, as we found III Ken lucky Both of these states. as well as Kentucky, have a very large acreage sown in winter wheat. The crop IS well advanced, as the weather has been very favorable this fall for the winter wheat crop. I saw some fields so far advanced that 1t Is necessary to pasture them down. Up to the time of my trip there had been but little cold weather, and the grass and clover was yet green and stock 1eu yet on the pastures. This will be snort winter with the feeders, as they did not have to feed heavy before or up to Christ mas Illinois is one of our leading corn states, but the crop last year, 1902 was one far below the average, and much of the crop got frosted before 1t was ripe, and so they have much damaged and soft corn. After a daylight run across the great agricultural state of Illinois, we find ourselves al night crossing the great river at St. Louis. Monday December 2. I spent in St. Louis watching the great crowds of people who crowded the great stores shopping, buying Christmas pres ents The trade in Christmas goods was very heavy in St. Louis this season. My next move was a daylight ride across the great agricultural state of Missouri. This state, too, has made wonderful improve ments on the farms, as well as in the cities and smaller towns. Missouri is much better off in the way of crops this year, 1902, than she was last year. 1901. The corn crop in this state was the best for years, both in yield and quality.
 Then, too, Missouri has a big fine crop of winter wheat growing, as well as lots of fna grass for pasture. The northern part of the state is one of the finest blue grass sections in the world Missouri is noted the world over for her fine fruit especially her apples, which command ready sale at home and abroad. The ap- pie crop was generally good in thls state the past season, and brought to the growers of the state a large sum of money, so that the people of Missouri generally are prosperous and have plenty to live on. The price of land In all the states named as well as those l shall name later. has advanced very rapidly in the last few years Passing on from Missouri, my next was daylight trip across the greatest agricultural state Of the Union-Iowa. This state suffered se- yerely the past season from great floods of rain, which destroyed thousands of dollars worth of crops. The state pro- duced the greatest crops ever before known of corn, wheat, oats and hay, but the trouble was that the great floods of 1ain prevented the farmers from saving their crops Many crops were entirely lost, and hers so badly damaged that
 
 The winter has been mild so far and stock have not required so much feed as usual Now, fo- the benefit of our south ern farmers, I will give an outline of the crop conditions, and supply on hand Of the leading crops in these great agricul- tural states, which largely control the market on the leading grain crops. Now, am sorry to have to inform our people right at the start that need not expect to buy either hay or grain cheap this spring. They will have to pay high price for all the feed which they have to buy for making the coming crop. and they had as well begin to prepare for this state of high prices, for I can see nothing promising in the way of cheap feed in sight. I will first notice the great est used Of all grains
 Corn.
 We'll what of the prospect for cheaper corn this season? I have made extensive enquiries as to the prospect of corn being cheaper, and the almost united opinion of the western people is that corn is hound to be high. Take Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska, here are three of our great corn producing states The crop In all these states was very late and much of it got caught green by early frosts. so that neither of these states have any corn ft4to ship at all. Iowa, the greatest corn producing state of them all, is not now offering to ship out any corn at all. But, instead, they are shipping in cat tie from the west to eat up their crop or soft frosted corn so that three Of our best corn states are practically out of the market. Missouri and Kansas, both have large fine crops of corn, and these states will have some corn to ship. But the farmers in both these states are in good circumstances generally. and they know of the general shortage of the crop and