Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1903-07-07
Area Destroyed But Very Small Part
OF Total Wheat Acreaee-Condition
is 80 Per Cent, Acreage 5,7oe, 4s5-
Corn Somewhat Backward.


lSod .................. $685. 9o
l5Vl. .................. 45,S27 ,496
1903 (estimated) .......... 10000 900
Topeka, Kan, July Secretary F..
D. Coburn Of the Kansas agricultural
department, has issued a comprehen-
Kansas crops. 1t follows:
Reports of correspondents from
| well nigh every township in Kansas to
the state board of agriculture relating
to the growing crops, based on condi-
tons existing June 20, summarized,
indicate that the area Of winter wheat
that will be harvested aggregate $780,
4S5 acres, or 94.6 per cent of the total
! area sown, and the general average
condition of this on the eve of harvest
is SO per cent, calling 100 an entirely
satisfactory condition Besides rating
high in the more prominent wheat
producers, many counties with lesser
| acreages report correspondingly high
averages, thus indicating that wherev-
er there is wheat to harvest its con-
dition is quite uniformly excellent.
cat approximately the same stage in
the plants development that year, the
general average condition of the
states winter wheat in 1902 was 80,
on 5,24S,547 acres, which bore the
largest crop in the states history CO.,
333,095). This years area is now cut,
is greater, and its average condition
seven points higher. Weather condi-
tons for the past ten days have been
favorable for its rapid reaping. No
threshing as yet has been done, and
it is too early to definitely determine
quality, but, with few exceptions here
and there. the heads are reported as
well developed and filed. Cool, wet
| weather delayed ripening. and to that
extent harvest is CORRESPONDENCE late,
beginning in some of the more south
ern counties only last week, while
the harvest for the state is three to
four weeks backward.
Unusually High Counties.
Conspicuous for their high condi-
items are Scott county. 105 per cent;
Decatur 1903; Lane 1902; Phillips, 1902;
Sheridan 1902; Smith 1902; and Finney
Greeley. Meade, Ness, Norton, Raw
Inns and Rocks each 100. Twenty coun'
ties in the wheat belt SO called aver.
aged 81 per cent on 3,0S7, 01O acres, or
over SO per cent of the total area to be
| harvested.
ut is noteworthy that adjoining
counties comprising slightly more than
1 the northwestern quarter of the state
excepting three or four bordering on
| Colorado present most promising
showing, twelve reporting average con-
ditions of 100 to 103, and ranging from
that to 80, in Jewell and Ellsworth.
Big Acreage.
1 Assessors returns of acreage from
sixty-five counties bear out the esti.
mate of the boards correspondents last
fall that the area of winter wheat sown
from which the 1902 crop was taken
then was to per cent less than that
and these official figures substituted for
the preliminary estimates in their re.
spective counties make the states total
area sown, 6,031, 422 acres. Reporting
earlier in the season the prospect was
represented as almost perfect, but the
same correspondents now say that 5.4
per cent or 321, 1897 acres has been so
4 damaged by various causes that it will
not be cut. By far the greater part of
this is in the flooded districts and the
/ injury wrought in most instances is di.
rectly charged to high water and con.
tinuous wetness, increased in some 10.
calities by rust, Hessian fly and weeds
| the latter two particularly causing a
considerable proportion of the reported
damage, especially in fields where seed
was sown on stubble ground. With
few exceptions, counties reporting the
| largest losses from these sources and
lowest conditions are those traversed
| by the Kansas river and ranging from
| Saline on the west to the east and
south boundaries. Cherokee in the ex
IRENE southeastern corner of the state
reporting the lowest condition, SIS, fol
lowed by her neighbours, Crawford
with So, Montgomery, 65; Labette, Sc;
Neosho 66; and Wilson 70-the othe.
counties in this section ranging from
that to 80 in Usage. AS whole how.
ever, it would seem that Kansas is
reaping prodigious wheat crop, and
every energy is now bending to safe
ly place it in shock and stack.
1.-THE spring wheat area is compare
lively small and confined principally to
| the northwestern counties as usual and
its general average condition is 95.
Corn Crop Backward.
"The situation as to corn has been
most complicated. Much of that plant
ed early, probably SO per cent, was re-
| planted, necessitated by the super.
abundant rainfall, washing out the
seeds in places, too deep covering and
rotting in others, and weeds where too
wet to cultivate. That Of the first
| planting which withstood adversity.
and has been properly cultivated, has
been well advanced and prospecting.
On account of the almost incessant
rainfall, however, all farm work has
been much delayed, and by far the
greater part of the corn was planted
late (mainly with listers), being finish
ed only within the past week. Core.
spondents estimate the total area
planted to be 6,374,335 acres, which is
| less than last year by GIG, 429 acres, or
per cent. The condition of the entire
state is 1873 per cent. Recent warm,
| sunshiny weather, favorable to growth
and cultivation, has put the ground in