The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1903-08-04
THE WHEAT HARVEST.
An Estimate Of This Years
Crop In the West.
ONE OF THE LARGEST EVER GROWN

Two Hundred Million Bushels OF
Winter Wheat to BE Garnered-The
Wealt Of Kansas-Pronts Of the
Grower Selling Methods being
Revolutionised.
Despite the foods, the rains, the fly
and the rust, the middle west is gath
ering 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 a day, three weeks be-
hind it's usual schedule, the ripening
tinge Of yellow has made its way north
ward. So rapidly has the harvest come
on that there was not sufficient prepa-
ration for it, wen with all the knowl-
edge Of it's vastness. There was over
the west, somehow, a 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 3O,OOO,O00 bushels
were raised and large amounts Of 1t
produced on farms that did not cost
the n q cent. Little wonder that
farms of 100 acres sell for 5000 to
$1,000 each. The average yield Is often
thirty to t~hirty-fve bushels an acre,
and the profits make the farmers well
to do. Some of the large ranchers
farm tine Indian lands on 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
the 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 s. 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 1t
was ripe the question was, how could
it be harvested? There was not a reap
er within sixty miles. One day there
came to the owner the head Of a colo
ny Of Russians which had just arrived.
II will reap your wheat" he said.
"How can you do it?'
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 10000 acres were 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 a million bushels each,
and the total Of the state Is not far
from 100, 100000 bushels.
The Nebraska harvest ends the win
ter wheat cutting. Then begins the
spring wheat Of the north. The north
ern part of Nebraska is almost entirely
devoted to this sort of grain. The ell
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 q
time that the crop would be exceeding
ly light, but later rains have made il
an average one in most sections. Ne
braska will produce something like TO-
100000 bushels, but 1t is not yet ready
! to turn in it's 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 tt
help, while the soil seems to be fitted
over a considerable portion-known as
the wheat belt'-for giving a harvest
: Of exceptional size and regularity. This
I is what Kansas has done for fourteen
. years:
Year. Bushels. Year. Bushels
l89O...... q. sol, IA 1897....... 81, O26, 60
1881. ..... So, 550.653 1898. ......... 60. 1901 6
1885,. .... "A. 538. sos 1S99.......... a., 6S7,01
1885,. ...... "a. 827.523 1900. ..-..... n. 339. 09
1894. .... q. 205.7 100 l901......... 30. 1880
1ao6 ia M ncn 1919 4 * 217 40