Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1907-05-02
4 GREAT CROP YET
Secretary Coburn Gives the Actual
Conditions as to Kansas
Wheat Prospects,.
Observation-Disclosures
About Five Per Gent Of the Crop HaO
Been Piowed Up and condL
ton Of Remainder Has
Dropped to "a

Topeka, Kan, May L-Despit
alarmist rumors Of damage said !
have been inflicted on the wheat Gro
BY freezing weather and green bug
and Of farmers blowing up theiI
wheat fields to be used for othe
purposes. the report Of r. D. Coburn
secretary Of the Kansas department
Of agriculture, issued Monday night
declares from the observations mad
by 1000 experienced correspondent
and observers that the acreage todaI
"a created than ever previously de-
voted TO winter wheat In Kansas, ant
that tho general average condition Il
"a.
The wheat crop, IN the main, safely
passed the perils Of the winter. The
continuous warm, growing weather
Of early spring caused II to advance
remarkably. and 1t was unusually
forward and flourishing. but later
unfavorable circumstances have
changed the situation. The high con-
ditions prevailing everywhere three or
four weeks ago have in q major por-
tion Of the wheat territory been les
sened somewhat each day since by
an abnormally cold April. including
several severe freezes, a lack Of the
rains which would have sustained or
promoted Its vigor. and, in various
southern counties, damage inflicted
by myrlads Of the green lice reported
90 harmful in Texas and Oklahoma.
Correspondents mention these as
present to greater or less extent
in 80 commissioning in some con-
siderable damage and in others none.
These counties are in the south
eastern fourth Of the state.
Fifteen counties In all report from
Is to 26 per cent likely to be plowed
mp, Chautauqua, Butler. Bourbon,
Montgomery and Elk being worst, but
these have small wheat acreages.
The present returns, however, In
dlcate that but a small proportion Of
the aggregate will be plowed up, ap-
proximating perhaps four or five per
cen. Of the states total. Even then
the remaining 6,2S90OO acres con-
stitute a larger field than was ever
previously devoted to winter wheat
IN Kansas, and Its general average
condition is reported as 81. The bet
ter conditions are returned In the
western part of the state, and
especially from the northwest.
Secretary Coburn says: 1T should
be stated that this is not a report Of
probabilities, Of what may happen, or
what the situation may be next
week or month, but the conditions as
they were in the last half of the first
week in April. It is not an expression
Of opinion by the Secretary of the |
State Board of Agriculture; It does |
not deal with conditions past or pres
ent In Oklahoma or other outside ter.
ritory. It Is not the wall Of some I'M
fortunate and detected Jones or Brown
whose wheatfield or neighborhood
has suffered mishap; not on the one
hand the weird word.painting Of an
emissary sent out in a Pullman car
by SPECTATORS to spy the land through
bulls eyes and smoked glasses, nor
on the other an artificially inspired
land.broker whose early expiring OPP
lions prompt his painting the land
Icape In rose tints, but Is the sober
consensus Of what the men on the
ground, neither bought nor sold, buy
ing nor selling, see and say.
-Every day statements are publish
ID Of what may occur and the various
disasters that will follow unless there
9 q change Of weather within a given
lime, or that II misfortune, reported
n the next county, should come and
lestroy the wheat the yield would be
yreatly diminished. All Of this when
Inalyzed amounts to no more than a
e-statement Of the accepted fact that
Inless II rains a long dry spell is
'robable. Anxiety ana actual dam
'ge are by no means identical; green '
Ice do not Of necessity spelI great '
oss, and April bugs do not avouch l
breadless year." |,