The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1903-07-28
THE WHEAT HARVEST.
An Estimate Of This Years
Crop In the West.
ONE OF THE LARGEST EVER GROWN

Two Hundred MiIIion Bushels Of
Winter wheat to he Garnered-Thc
wealth of ISnnsas-Pronts Of the
Grower : selling Methods Being
RevoIutioniaed.
Despite the foods, the rains, the fly
and the rust, the middle west is gath
erlng one Of the greatest wheat crops
In Its history, says the special core
spondent Of the New York Post at To-
peka. Beginning on the lower border
Of Oklahoma in the Middle days Of
June and moving northward at the rate
Of twenty miles day, three weeks be
hind its usual schedule, the ripening
Hnge Of yellow has made its way north
ward. SO rapidly has the harvest come
on that there was not sufficient prepa-
ration for It, even with all the lnowl-
edge Of Its yastness. There was over
the west, somehow, 4 sentiment that
the wheat would not be up to the usual
standard.
The harvest In Oklahoma has grown
nightly. Fifteen years ago there was
not a white settler IN the territory.
Ten years ago not 100000 bushels Of
wheat were raised In the whole area.
This year more than 100000 bushels
were raised and large amounts Of it
produced on farms that did not cost
the owners a cent Little wonder that
farms OF 100 acres sell for $4,000 to
$1,000 each The average yield Is often
thirty to thirty-hye bushels an acre.
aud the profits make the farmers well
to 90. Some Of the large ranches
farm the Indian lands Oh the adjoining
reservations and have become wealthy.
IN Kansas Is another wheat wonder.
The western third Of the state has for
ten years been reviled as the '.seat Of
tile busted BOOM The land sold dur
ing the days Of the middle nineties for
81 an acre. Now such has been the
added value given By the production
Of wheat and the raising of cattle that
the same lands are worth SIS to $40 an
acre. The first wheat ever sown in
Ellis county was a field Of ten acres,
put in the ground In 1876 When Ii
was ripe the question was, how could
1t be harvested? There was not a reap
er within sixty miles. One day there
came to the owner the head OF colo
ny DC Russians which had just arrived.
Il win reap your wheat he said.
'.How can You 10 it2p
with our women The owner Of
the field took up his offer, and the next
day fifty Russian women came into the
field Each had a short sickle, and they
cut and bound the wheat before the
second sunset In Ellis county this
year $4,000 acres We're In wheat The
yield was close to 100000 bushels
200 bushels for every man, woman and
child in the county Thirty counties
raise more than q million bushels each,
and the total Of tie state Il not far
from l00000,000 bushels
The Nebraska harvest ends the win
ter wheat cutting Then begins the
spring wheat Of the north The north
tA1 tfHEt VI ASEBldNNa rs 5NAAiNNA t1JtllNlA
devoted to this sort Of grain. The eli
mate Of the Dakotas is too severe for
the wheat to live through the winter
hence the spring sowing, There the
spring was backward, and the straw
grew very short There was fear for
time that the crop would be exceeding
III light but later rains have made 1t
an average one ia most sections Ne
braska VIII produce something like T0,
100000 bushels, but It is not yet ready
to turn IA its figures. The Nebraska
wheat grower labors under greater dis
advantages than his Kansas and Okla
homa brothers. In the more southern
sections there is the milder winter TO
help, while the soil seems to DO fitted
over considerable portion known as
the wheat belt for giving a harvest
Of exceptional size and regularity. This
is what Kansas has done for fourteen
years
Year Bushels Year. Bushels.
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