The Savannah morning news., 1904-11-21

to the Making of ChiId's Rubber
BalI-Amerfca's Corn Crop Nearly
Four Times as Large as That OF
the Rest of the World Put TOgeth-
er-IIIinOis the Greatest Corn
Stnte-The Value of Its Yearly
Crop Far Exceeds the Combined
National Revenue of Sixteen Re
publics.
By John H. Machray.
Chicago, Nov. 19.-Of all the fruits
of the earth and the blessings of
Providence for which a good American
gives thanks on the day appointed by
the Chief Executive. corn ranks first
and foremost. 1t is the greatest of
American crops. the typical American
| crop. On corn the prosperity of the
| United States depends in a larger
measure than it does upon any other
single article. Corn vitalizes thou
sand industries. and affects in some
degree almost every nerve and sinew
of the commonwealth.
If the corn crop is bad Thanksgiving
Day seems a hollow mockery to mill
lions; if it is good, THANKSGIVING Day
is the heartiest of festivals.
1t may well be so. The corn crop
of 1902 throughout the United States
amounted to 1923. 900 bushels; while
The corn crop of all the rest of the
world put. together only totaled &c.,
$4,000 bushels. This is the latest COM
parison available, the statistics of the
corn crop of 1903 for the world, exclu-
sive of America, not having been COM
piled
The Greatest Corn State.
The state of Illinois-the greatest
corn growing state in the Union-alone
produced during 1902 a great deal
more than half as much corn as the
whole of Europe-namely 264,0S7, 431
bushels as compared with 422, 526.000
bushels. The total production of
South America, Africa and Australasia
was rot much more than half of that
of Illinois. Australasia produced T.,
$4,000 bushels. No fewer than TWEEN
tysiX American states and two terri
tories individually did better than
that.
The American corn crop of 1903 was
harvested from over lightweight mill
lions of acres. or 137.5OO square miles.
This area is much larger than the
whole of Great Britain, or Italy and
Greece put together, and more than
twice as large as European Turkey.
Close to Billion Dollars.
The value of the 1903 crop was esti-
mated by the Department of Agricul-
ture at close on a billion dollars, but
| that was only the direct value of the
crop when harvested and sold or
awaiting sale in the farmers hands.
| 1t took no account of the many other
uses to which corn is put. For ex-
ample, the live stock industry of the
Init Cd fnI1 with al
countless ramifications, is by far the
| greatest industry of it's kind in the
| world, is very largely dependent on
| the corn crop. 1t has been estimated
that over 100000 sheep and 100000
| beef steers are fattened in the great
corn belt which has Springfield, ILL.,,
| for it's center. And then there are
chickens, hogs and dairy cows innu-
| merahle.
Illinois corn last year was worth
more than ninety-ive millions of dol
| lars-about one-tenth the value of the
| crop, and about $40 for every man,
woman and child in the state. Iowa
came net with a crop worth over
| sS7 100000. That is more than the
national revenue of either Austria
Hungary, China, Canada, Belgium, or
| the whole of the British colonies, ex-
Guiding Canada, India and Australasia.
| 1t far exceeds the combined revenue
| of Sweden, Switzerland and Norway.
Outvalues Revenues of Republics.
The state of Illinois gets far more
money for it's corn crop than the
| combined revenues of all the Latin
| American governments, except the
/ four most important ones-Mexico,
| Chile, Argentina and Brazil. Take
| the sixteen sovereign republics of
Hayti, Santo Domingo, Salvador,
Costa Rica. Honduras, Guatemala,
| Nicaragua, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecu
ador, Peru, Uruguay Paraguay, Be-
| livia, Cuba and Panama, and you will
| find that their national revenues do
not exceed seventy millions of dol
| lars annually. Illinois gets twenty
five millions of dollars more for her
corn crop.
And it must be remembered that all
this vast wealth is of recent creation
AS late as 1859, the United States
imported corn from England, but the
great extension of maize growing in
the Middle West and the South soon
made that forever impossible again.
| But 1879 Illinois was producing los
bushels per head of it's population,
and since then the corn production
has increased by leaps and bounds.
Wyoming now comes lowest on the
list of the states and territories in
/ tic liietltcI VI GOTH. lIS crop IN lyU3
amounted to the mere trifie of 1874
bushels, but that was larger than the
production of many of the sovereign
Powers % Europe.
Great Corn Growing state.
Illinois. Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, In
| diana, Missouri and Ohio are the great
est corn-producing states: but II must
be borne In mind that the corn crop,
| apart even from It's food value and its
importance as a vitalizer of the money
market, is the sovereign consideration
in manufacturing centers throughout
this broad land. 1t has been well said
that corn permeates the Industrial
fabric" II furnishes the raw material
for a thousand industries II is used
| I'm the building of a battleship and in
the making of a childs rubber ball
There Is no staple of which the by
products are more numerous and valu-
| able.
Nearly all of the long array of
breakfast foods, served TO us in so
many DISCUSSES nowadays, consist in
reality of corn. So do an infinite num-
Der Of jellies, meals, starches, syrups,
caramels. gumdrops, and other eat
ables. into which glucose, starch and
other properties of corn largely enter
Cellulose, which Is a by-product OF
corn. Is used for packing the Golfer
dams OF battleships, and the navies of