Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1906-01-18
GROWING GRAIN IN nearby STATES
Five Northwestern States Lead in Production Of
Grains Other Than Wheat-Barey, Oats,
Rye and Flax at Front

WHAlS luc great ClOpS III mlAAS-
sofa, North and South Dakota, Iowa
and Wisconsin are wheat and corn,
these states are far in the lead in the
production of barley, oats, rye and
flax seed.
While we, in the United States,
know little or nothing about barley
bread, it was for centuries the breey
food of all Of Europe. Until the last
half century it was only the wealthy
classes of Europe that could afford to
use wheat bread. Great armies were
fed on bread made from barley, and
it was the important crop of nearly
all European nations, just as wheat
and corn is our most important crop
to-day. A failure of the barley crop
would have meant to them what a
failure of the wheat or corn crop
would mean to us at the present time.
With us, however, barley was never
used as bread food, and is important
only because of it's use in the manu-
facture of malt liquor. Its usefulness,
however, for this purpose is fast
growing, and for many years past the
production of barley has been on the
increase.
In 1900 Minnesota as said to be the
second greatest of the barley states,
raising 24,750,000 bushels of that &C.
real, while California, which had the
greatest crop, only raised 25,100,00O
bushels. In 1900 Wisconsin came
third, with 1S,7000OO bushels, and
Ioa fourth with 1S,100,000 bushels,
while North and South Dakota both
harvested fair-sized crop. This year
Minnesota and the two Dakotas raised
between them 63,634,O00 bushels of
of barley. while Iowa and Wisconsin
did almost as we'll.
The value of any crop, of course, de-
ponds upon the use there is for it. In
California we find that barley is fed to
the horses as feed, being a greater
crop in that state by five times than
oats, and being too far removed from
the great breweries of the country to
be Of use in the manufacture of beer
and other malt liquor. The great crop
Of barley grown in the five states
above mentioned, however, all finds its
way to the great breweries. and neo-'
1y every bushel of it that is not
as food by man is turned into neer
and malt liquor of other sorts. The
greatest breweries in the country are,
as every one knows. those found at
Milwaukee and ST. Louis. But there
are some large breweries at st. Paul
and Minneapolis, and many small ones
scattered all over the Central North
west. For this reason the barley crop
is one of great value to the farmers
of this section of the country. The
barley crop Of Minnesota and the two
Dakotas is valued at s23, 429,S54 to the
farmers this season.
The history of barley in Minnesota
shows that there has been steady
increase in this cereal since 1850. in
which year the crop was only 1916
bushels Ten years later it was 109,-
66S bushels, and in 1870 1,032024 were
harvested. In 1880 the crop reached
2,972,965 bushels, and ten years later
was 9,10O,6S2 bushels. In 1900 the
great crop of 24,314,240 bushels was
harvested.
l.
ton of barley in the United States
during the ten years froms1SS9 to 1892
was in Minnesota. The increase was
15,213,557 bushels more than the crop
harvested in 1889.
Fifty years ago the center of barley
production was just east of the cen
ter of the state of New York. To-day
~ g. Of nd
South Dakota, 1,500 miles further
west.
An interesting feature connected
with barley is the fact that for the
last year thousands of Japanese sol
diers have been living upon it and
fighting great battles on it just as Ma
poleon's soldiers did hundred years
being shipped to Japan and the Phil
ippines, and it is quite possible that
in the near future we will be raising
barley as an Eastern export.
The present year saw a harvest of
33,4s7,1Oo bushels of barley in Min
nesota, 6S5,000 bushels in North Da-
kota and 390,O06 bushels in South Da-
kota, valued at s23 ,429,s54 to the
farmers.
Another crop that is of great impo1-
tance in the five states about which
we are writing is flax. In this cereal
North Dakota stands first, with H.
$4,000 bushels. valued at $15,595, 200, 4
and Minnesota second, with 6,7S6,000
bushels, valued at s6.175,260; South,
Dakota produced 3,737,50O bushels,
valued at :s3.326,375.
As review of the history Of these
states show. that fax has been raised
in Minnesota and the Dakotas all dur
ing the fifty years past, and like bar
ley has been on the increase since the
very first. There is less reliable sta
tistical information obtainable about
this crop than there is about any of
the other crops but every one admits
that it is onesof the Northwest's most
important crops. The crop of 1905
was the largest in the history of the
Northwest, and the outlook is that the