The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-07-25
CROP SITUATION.
Expert for a Minneapolis Paper
Sizes Up Our Wheat.
Claims Kansas Fields Are Dam.
aged % 1-2 Per Cent.

| According TO the statement OF tNoA-
lin E. Smith, crop expert for the Min
neapolis Times. who has been in Kan
sas the past two days and who has Wis
tied the wheat sections of the state.
the total loss of the wheat crop will
not exceed % Il per cent 1t must be
understood in the first place that the
report of Mr.. Smith is not altogether
disinterested, inaSmuch as the Mime
apolis millers are coming more and
more to recognize the excellent quality
of Kansas hard wheat hence it is
important that statement made by
a paper like the Times should be as
near reliable as possible.
Writing to his paper after thor
oughly investigating conditions in
Kansas, Mr.. Smith says:
1.-The loss to the wheat crop of kan
sas from the rains and floods of July
1 to 10 may be briefly summed up as
Hard wheat destroyed outright...12 70
Soft, or red, wheat destroyed ..-...-. ) 20
Loss due to shrinkage, spouJing,
in shock etc 4 lbs per bu.......... 6I5es
Loss in cutting and handling over
ripe crop --.....'......---'..-..'-
Total loss OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES. 231lsSo
Taking as a basis the estimate of
100000 bushels for the crop be-
fore the damage, this means a loss of
100000 bushels and a total saved
of 100000 bushels providing good
weather prevails until August.
Oats in the flooded district are al
most a total loss except where they
were in the shock
But for one factor Kansas would
have suffered a total loss of $4,000
900 bushels of wheat, besides damage
to the remainder of the crop. The
one fortunate circumstance that saved
to the state this great amount of
wheat was that almost the total crop
was of Turkey" hard wheat winter
variety. This wheat, during period
II
length has withstood the elements in
a manner no one could have foreseen.
Besides frequent and almost continu-
Gus rains early i nthe summer-and
in part of this state no moisture at
all during the winter-deluge after
deluge came upon the ripened grain
the first ten days of July. These rains
broke down the red wheat and the
oats, bent over the heads and ham
mered them to the earth as easily as
the wind drops the autumn leaves af-
ter a frost BY the first of July fully
as per cent of the wheat was uncut
and was therefore at the mercy of
the elements; yet when the sky cleared
on July II, the wheat that had not
been forced down by the overflow of
the streams, was upright, only await
ing dry weather to be harvested. The
heads were bent over, but not to the
ground; and the straw was tough and
unbroken. No other wheat grown in
America could have withstood what
was it known how much grief it could
stand up against.
Although wheat is generally grown
throughout Kansas except in the most
western counties, the greater part of
the crop is raised in a few counties in
the central and southern part of the
state. OF these, Summer, one of the
southern tier of counties, and Barton
are the greatest. These two combined
raise approximately 10000, 900 bushels
of wheat; and fortunately for the state
the actual loss-total destruction-of
wheat was comparatively small in
them In Barton county not over 20
per cent of the wheat was cut by July
1, yet the loss from the floods hardly
exceeds per cent. In Sumner county
40 per cent was cut and the loss was
under 10 per cent.
Owing to long continued general rains
the earth was saturated and the
streams swollen by the last of June.
Then for ten days the rainfall was
heavy. At Wichita it was from five to
six inches and in some parts of the
state ten inches. The streams general
ly overlooked their banks and ponds
were formed in every depression Fields
oats drowned out and destroyed. Some
entire fields of grain We're completely
devastated and in some counties al
most 80 per cent of the wheat crop is a
total loss
Such loss has, however, been largely
overestimated. After careful inspec-
ton of the principal wheat territory
since the floods, the writer places the
loss at Is per cent of the total crop
II per cent for the hard wheat and
per cent for the soft.
The next most serious loss is due to
shrinkage of the berry, sprouting in the
shock and the bleaching of the uncut
grain. Sprouting is not general in the
shock, only one or two bundles in the
largest shocks being affected. Yet much
Of the shocked grain is diScolored and
IF iS f1f w or l.
ly all the standing grain is bleached.
There will be little grade wheat from
this crop. There will be some 60-pound
wheat and some 52-pound, but the crop
will practically range from "a to 5s
pounds per bushel. This estimate is