The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1912-06-13
BETS FORTUNE ON SHOWER.
Wagered $4,000 to $4,000 That 1t
Would Rain, and 1t Did.

jim F1ke, CuS hduSdS "uooI
king, bet $4,000 during August and
September last year that rain would
fall on his 1000 acres of wheat IN
Northwest Kansas before the middle
of May, says a Topeka special.
And he has won, almost to 1, and
his winnings may be or 8 to l..
Fike never had such wheat prospect
in Is years as he has at the present
time. If he has only the average
Kansas yield of wheat he stands to
clean up more than 100000 on the
one wheat crop. If rains continued
through May and the early part of
June, he stands to beat this by $780,
900 to $4,000.
For five years Fike has been plung-
ing in wheat, and he is now the big
gest winter wheat grower in the
country. Three years ago he had
10000 acres of winter wheat that
averaged eight bushels an acre, and
he made $4,000 profit. Two years
ago he sowed $4,000 acres of wheat
and lost every cent he had put into
it. He did not harvest enough wheat
to get seed for the crop that offers
so fine prospect at this time.
Gambling on the weather has been
Fixes method of chasing the festive
dollar for years. He was once Kan
sas railroad commissioner, elected
during the Populist days. He has
bet more than s250,000 in the last
10 years that rain would fall at the
proper time, and he never lost en-
tirely until last year. He had
bumper crop on 1000 acres in 1908,
and a crop that earned him $4,000
in 1908. Since that year he has not
had less than 5000 acres in wheat
in any year. But last year, after the
most disastrous season he had ever
experienced, Fike was forced to cut
down his wheat acreage just half that
of the former year.
Last summer Fike put in his wheat
with extraordinary care. He bought
the best Russian hard winter wheat
seed he could get on the Kansas Ag-
ricultural college farms. He ploWed
two inches deeper than ever before.
He has four 30-horsepower steam
plowings engines, and two 2O-horse-
power gasoline engines to plow his
fields. He plowed five inches instead
of the usual three inches, and used
two sets of harrows to smooth the
grounds after each plowing.
Every one in Kansas has been
watching the rain reports from the
western part of the State. Kansas
people are interested in Fike and his
weather gambling. They want him
to win and make big "killing.'
Everybody is pulling for him. There
were so many calls in the Topeka
newspaper Offices as to whether there
had been rain at Colby, where Fike
lives, that the correspondents there
were directed to wire rain stories for
every shower. The Rock Island Rail-
way general offices for Kansas direct
ed it's agent at Colby to report spe-
cifcally every day on rain, and the
government weather Offices loaned
the railway agent some rain guages.
Fike is like the chap playing the
faro bank. He has worked out his
system and just keeps on gambling
until he break the bank. Fike has
not made a real killing since 1908,
although he made lot of money in
1908 and has made some money each
year until 1911. But this year he
will hit the market in a way that
Kansas will be talking about it for
years. incidentally there are lot
of other Kansans who will make
lot of money from their wheat fields.