The Glenwood post., 1906-09-08
IMMENSE CROPS.
RECoRD-eREAkINa PRODUCTION
IN ALL SECTIONS
WHEAT, CORN AND COTTON

Twenty-four Million Bushels Of Wheat
Above Any Previous Years Produe-
tion-NearIy Three Billion Bushels
of Corn.
The crop reports issued by the de-
partment OF agriculture on August 10th
indicated another record-breaking year.
says Golfers Weekly. Preliminary re-
turns put the wheat crop at 493.434,0O0
bushels. The spring wheat crop was
estimated at 27S.s3O,OO0 bushels. maxi
ing a total probable wheat harvest OF
of 772, 2,264 900, which is more than was
ever produced in any other country in
the world, about 100000 more than
our own average production for the ten
years preceding, and nearly 24.000,000
more than our greatest previous years
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
2,713.194.000 bushels. Add this to
-million-bate cotton crop. an ex-
cellent tobacco crop, and crops of bar.
ley. rye, and other minor cereals,
ranging from fair to fine, and 1t seemsi
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 a remark
able increase in the yield per acre. Tho
gain is unbroken from Pennsylvania
to California. In Indiana and Ohio,
old states whose soil might be ex-,
pected to be showing signs of exhaus-t
ton. the average yield has gone above
twenty bushels to the acre-a yield
that would have been considered good
few years ago for an exceptionally
favored farm. In Nebraska the aver
age has risen to 232 bushels. Last
year. when we had next TO the largest
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 year
only one state has averaged less than
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 been,
produced on an acreage ten per cent
smaller than the 1899 crop OF 114,000,-'
900 bushels less.
1t is a noteworthy fact that the
amount of land sown to wheat in the
United States seemed to reach its limit
seven years ago. In 1899 we had ST.
5SS,574 acres in wheat-an area equal
to tnat of Kansas-and we have meyer
equaled that figure since. In other
words, the state OF Kansas. If 1t we're
all good wheat land, could produce all
the wheat we have ever raised in the
United States in any one year. While
we have over three million square
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 more
importance to the United States than,
the wheat crop, although that is the
Sreatest in the world. Our 2,713,O0O,-
600 bushels of corn this year would
load freight train extending two
thirds of the way around the globe.
This crop has been raised on 95, ,535, ,00Oi
acres of land-about twice the acre
age devoted to wheat and the greatest
ever given to corn in our history. The
American cornfelds are about equal
in extent to the Japanese empire. and
their yield in single year would pay
off the national debt of the United
States.
Last year Secretary Wilson said in
his annual report that If the Ameri-l
can farmer could go on without relapse
for three years longer he could look
back over a decade and find that in
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.