The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1904-08-19
IT'S BIC WHEAT CROP
Minnesota Will Lead Sister
States In Northwest.
Fine Yield of Grain Is Found
Everywhere.
Tour of the Different Sections
BY an Expert.
He Discusses Freely the Cause
of the RuIIishness.

Minnesota will have the best wheat
crop of any Northwestern state, ac-
cording to the judgment of E. J. Muir
ply, travelling representative of the st.
Paul grain commission house of a. j.
Cummings, who has just returned from
a series of trips through Minnesota, the
Dakotas and part of the Canadian sec
ton. says The st. Paul Globe.
Mr.. Murphy has had unusual oppor-
tunities for thoroughly investigating the
wheat situation. Visiting his firms
branch houses in the smaller towns of
the Northwestern states, he travelled for
the most part from town to town on
way freight trains, making stops at lit
tie towns and talked with country mer
chants, elevator agents and dealers in
agricultural machinery.
These men are in close touch with
the situation in their home communities
and are in position to know the eondi-
tions. Their evidence is said to be vast
ly superior to the reports gained from
"crop experts" who view conditions from
observation car windows, with trains
running fifty miles an hour and stopping
only at important points.
The result of Mr.. Murphy's observa-
tions and the consensus of opinion of
the men whom he has interviewed in
the past few weeks, is>that Minnesota
has far and away the best wheat crop,
both in quantity and quality, of any
of the northwestern states, and that ex-
cept in spots the crop in this state
is better than an average. In the Da
kotas the returns from the threshers
promise neither so satisfactory yield
in bushels nor in the quantity of the
grain, and in places the yield is anything
but encouraging to the farmers.
In spite of conditions, Murphy is
bull He believes that the increased
home consumption and the demands for
export will keep the price of wheat
above dollar for long time to come,
and that dollar wheat will in the flu
ture be more of standard of value than
the so and 60 cent wheat that has pre-
vailed since ten years ago.
'My itinerary covered Southern Min
nesota, penetrated by the Milwaukee and
the Minneapolis & st. Louis railroads;
to North Dakota, via the Northern Pa
cifc and return by the Great Northern
A trip over the 500 line took me across
Western Minnesota and Dakota and into
the Canadian wheat belt west of Winni-
peg.
Il rode for the most of the long dis
lance on way freights, and while it is
not the fastest method of covering ter
ritory, it gives one an opportunity to
visit the local agents of the railroads,
the grain companies and the general
storekeepers. These men are vitality in
terested in the success or failure of the
wheat crop, and from them and from
my own observations 1 am prepared to
say that Minnesota is far away in the
lead of any of the states of the spring
wheat belt in the yield of wheat, and the
quality of rain is superior as well. The
crop in this state is really good except
in spots.
Perhaps the most distinct crop fail
ure in the state is in the region tribu
tary to Fergus Falls. There they will
harvest practically nothing. Another
partial crop failure is in Douglas coun-
ty, and reports from Ada, received to-
day, are to the effect that the yield there
has been badly damaged by rust. There
wheat is no longer the principal crop,
but all small grains are great crops,
and the conditions are almost perfect.
ga report from Cologne is depressing;
farmers complain that they will not get
over fifteen bushels to the acre. When
the general average of the crop report
is but sixteen bushels to the acre these
farmers are certainly to be commiserat-
ed in falling a bushel below standard.
But this doleful report simply shows
that the farmers this year feel that ff-
teen or sixteen bushels to the acre is a
partial crop failure. Along the 500
conditions presage fine yield. The 500
traverses for the most of the way west
high, rolling country. The heavy rains
of this season have resulted in a great
crop on the new land along the 500, and
officials of that line declare that the
road will haul more grain to market
this year than any season since the road
was built.
'There are spots, however, that are
very poor indeed. But the general crop
conditions are satisfactory. North Da-
kato and the section of South Dakota
about Aberdeen are disappointing. The