The Elbert County tribune., 1906-09-06
IMMENSE CROPS.
MISUNDERSTANDING PRooucTIoNi
IN ALL SECTIONS
WHEAT, CORN AND COTTON

Twenty-four Million Bushels of Wheat
Above Any Previous Years Produc~
tion-Neariy Three Billion Busheis
OF Corn.
The crop reports issued by the de-
partment of agriculture on August 10th
indicated another ecord-breaking year,
says Golfers Weekly Preliminary re-
turns put the wheat crop at 493.434, 900
bushels. The spring wheat crop was
estimated at 27S.S30.000 bushels. MAX
ing total probable wheat harvest of
of 772.264 600. which is more than was
ever produced in any other country In
the world. about lG0,000.000 more than,
our own average production for the ten,
years preceding. and nearly "a 1000 900
more than our greatest previous year IS
production in 1901
Along with the greatest wheat crop
we have also the promise of the great
est corn crop on record--no less than
ana, 900 bushels. Add this to a.
twelve-million-bate cotton crop, an ex5
cellent tobacco crop. and crops OF bar
ley, rye, and other minor cereals
ranging from fair to fine. and it seems
evident that the farmers of the United
spend, the railroads more freight to
carry, the merchants more goods to
sell than last. All through the winter
wheat belt there has been remark
| able increase in the yield per acre. The
gain is unbroken from Pennsylvania
to California. In Indiana and Ohio,
old states whose soil might be ex1
pected to be showing signs of exhaus-
ton, the average yield has gone above
twenty bushels to the acre--a yieldl
that would have been considered good
few years ago for an exceptionally
favored farm. In Nebraska the aver-l
age has risen to 23.2 bushels Last
year, when we had next to the larsestl
wheat crop ever produced up to that,
time, three of the eleven principal
winter wheat states averaged less than
ten bushels to the acre. This yearl
only one state has averaged less thani
twelve bushels and only two less than
fourteen. Last year only three states
went above eighteen bushels this year
three have gone above twenty. This
years gigantic crop of 772,000,000,
bushels of wheat of all kinds has beenl
produced on an acreage ten per cent.
smaller than the 1899 crop of 114,000, 4
900 bushels less.
1t is n noteworthy fact that thei
amount of land sown to wheat in thel
United States seemed to reach It's limit
seven years ago. In 1899 we had b2.-l
| 5SS,574 acres in wheat--an area equal
| to tnat of Kansas-and we have neverl
equaled that figure since. In otherl
words, the state of Kansas, If 1t wereI
all good wheat land, could produce ALI
the wheat we have ever raised In thel
| United States in any one year. Whlel
we have over three million SQUARED
miles of land in ALL 1t appears that
| only about eighty thousand or less than
three per cent of the whole. can be de
voted to wheat growing. This years.
record crop has been raised In the re-
clamation of arid lands by irrigation.
The corn crop is one of vastly moreI
| Importance to the United States thanI
the wheat crop, although that is theI
greatest in the world Our 2,7f3,OO0,-
| 900 bushels of corn this year would
| load a freight train extending two-I
| thirds of the way around the globe.
This crop has been raised on 95,535, ,00OI
acres of land-about twice the acre-l
| age devoted to wheat and the greatestI
ever given to corn in our history. The|
| American cornields are about equal
in extent to the Japanese empire. andl
| their yield in a single year would payl
| off the national debt OF the United
States.
Last year Secretary Wilson said inI
| his annual report that II the Ameri-I
| can farmer could go on without relapsel
| for three years longer he could loolsI
back over decade and find that I'M
those ten years he had produced AMI
amount of wealth equal to one-half of
the entire national wealth produced by
toll and composed of the surpluses and
| savings of three centuries" One OF
the three years has passed, and instead
of a relapse there has been an ad-
vance. This years crops alone would
pay for half the railroads of the United
| States.