The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-07-09
TAKE A RAILROAD RIDE" ."

1 Such is the Fashion in Which the Coun- try Can be Seen.
 In studying the favorable and unfa-
 vorable reports bearing upon the condi- l ton of the crops, correct conclusions can only be reached by Interpreting
 them through and by the light of se- ries of well-defined experiences. Every ordinary farmer, and, in fact, the large majority of men looking over pasture
 or piece of land put down to grass or corn, or any other grain, will, after a
 long, severe drought or prolonged
 heavy rains or floods, gain and commit nieate to the public quite hopeless idea of the outcome, much more hope less in the majority of cases than the result will confirm If the same obser- yer kept book of averages and looked
 at given situation through them, he
 ould modify his conclusions materially; and not alone by simply discounting them by a fixed rate of exaggeration,
 but also discounting them according to the season of the year and the charac- ter and point in development of the crop affected where the disaster was believed to have occurred.
 We are led to these often-forgotten
 but commonplace suggestions by mo- table experience this season. Take a
 railroad ride the coming week, with an
 occasional stop-over, and in this way go through the New England and the
 Middle states. Remember at starting what was the almost everywhere re- ,A4n e,fE L,-f hn fr,.s md
 crop reporters only four weeks ago. A drought lasting fifty days or more
 throughout those districts had just then
 been browken. The burden of the news which had filled the columns of the
 daily press was most gloomy and dis
 piriting because of the apparent deso-
 lation that prevailed all through those
 farming sections. As to crops and gar
 den vegetables for the family, and pas
 lures and fodder for the cattle, it was
 simply foolishness toanticipate any,
 thing of the kind. As for a hay crop, it
 was an absolute inpossibility this sea-
 son. We presume there were spots of
 considerable extent where conditions
 were less deplorable. All We can say
 about them is that the owners of the exceptions did not make themselves
 and their better condition known.
 What is the situation at the close of
 June? Information we have received added to considerable personal inspec- tion and a moderate amount of person. al experience goes to show that mar vel, perhaps we might say a miracle, has been wrought. It would not do to affirm of the seeds planted through the drought that they have come up thick and in regular order in every case.
 Some farmers seeds scarcely ever come up in that way We defy any one, though, to find poor pasture on the first of July in the sections named, ex-' cept such as had entirely run out be- fore this year; and many that year ago were but dry pickings are produc- ing bountifully now. As for hay crop, the general story is that it is. going to be late, and possibly, not certainly, the stem will be little shorter than usual; it will, though, be thick and presuma- ply in tons it will equal if not exceed an average year. Wheat, oats, rye. and corn look fairly promising and the last named, corn, unusually healthy, and stocky.
 The chief value of this incident Is that it strengthens and confirms irn- portant truths. d) Never to accept all that is reported, officially or otherwise, about disaster to the crops. @ Ruin that is widely proclaimed in the spring months as frequently as not means nothing. (3) The circumstance that a crop is late at the start may be of im- portance to the consumer and the spec ulator whose want is pressing, but it means very little as a gauge to the years product.-Financial Chronicle.