The Newtown bee., 1909-11-05


 22,542 We of the East are impressed by the idea that because Of the coldness of South Dakota's winters, the Spring season is very, very backward and unfavorable to the growth of the corn crop. That is not necessarily so, and we found on our arrival in the state on Septe r.ber 30 that up to that date there had been one frost nol did any frost appear until the night of October 12 and the garden vegetables and most delicate flowers were as bright and fresh as they were were in midsummer. The wet wealth CT of May delayed ;he work of plant ing and the growth through June was slow, but later rhe weather was hot and when we arrived we found the crop two weeks in advance of our crop at home. Much of it was cut up and that uncut fit to pick and put under cover. To refute the charges made against South Dakota becoming the leading corn producing state in the near fLtr"e> because of frost, the leading Sioux Falls paper today printed an official statement, giving the years and the dates on which the killing frosts were record ed for the past ten years: 1899, Sep tember 20; 1900, September IT; 1901, September 17: 1902, September IS: 1903, September 16; 1904, Sep tember 21; 1905, October 10, 1906, October 4; 1907, September 2S; 1908, October 1; 1909. October 12; thus showing that for four years out of 0 there was no killing frost until Octo- Der.
 All grain crops had been harvested when we reached South Dakota, bIt the great stacks Of wheat punched together in the wheat fields that stretched in every direction wairing for the thresher. gave little idea If wtat might nave been seen had we been so forum ,te as 10 have er- rived before the army of reapers had mm:nced their work. There has te-n left to Us the opportunity of seeing the pOnderoas threshi1g ma 'nr'ps that will Leep a small army of men h!lstling until the work shall he accomplished. Bar!ey, lax and mil let have all been harvested, an prices offered for grain are well up, but farmers are well anchored by their pocketbooks, and are n"t afraid to hold on, expecting a siill further advance in prices. A farmer told me on the street yesterGaE. October l', that his crop oi l3Gh bushels was threshed and in his grain bin wait ing fer possible a1vaLce in price. It makes ne wonder how much we must pay down east next winter for chicken feed. Quotations today in Sioux Falls papers fer grain are; No. wheat, SSc; corn, old, G2"; new corn, 44c; oats 34c; flax S1.2:; bar ley 42c; with none of these grains being pushed on the market. Apples grown here are fine and sell in the home market at $1 a bushel. The farmers are digging their potatoes now, and they find ready sale here at from 55c to Csc bushel, 60 lbs 10 the bushel. 1 asked a farmer yes terday whom l met at a Th' les@le house with a big load for delivery, who said he had sJld his crop for oOc cents a bushel, and he had l1oO bushels from 45 acres. Corn is the banner crop of 'h state. Millions tf acles are given up to our great American cereal. For cOrh is dis tinctly American and it is one Of our debts to the Inulan and he can well afford to have his name taken from the American cent, for he has given his name to this cUuntrys greatest az icrltural wealth.
 On our arrival here we passed the corn crop fully two weeks ahead ln ripeness to what we left it back in the east and ready to pick. It would seem as if it would take all winter to pick the crop but an army of hogs proportionate to the size of the field will be turned in to help in the work, a plan much practised in Iowa, and is called "hogging the fields a pro cess of evolution by which the corn is turned into pork and the refuse left behind to become the basis of the fertilizer for the crop that is to fol- low. Rapid progress IS being maGe in land improvement. Breaking up of the prairie and aggressive 1illing of the soil, together with the putting out of trees and other transforms