The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-31
BETS FORTUNE ON SHOWER

Topeka Correspondence St. Louis Post Dispatch.
 Jim" Fke, the Kansas wheat king, bet SEQ ,000 during August and September last year that rain would fall on his TOGO acres of wheat in northwest Kansas before the middle of May. And he has won, almost five to one, and his winnings may be seven or eight to one. Fike never had suen wheat prospect in 15 years as he has al the present time. If he has only the av- craze Kansas yield of wheat he stands to clean up more than s9o,000 on the one wheat crop. If rains continue during May and the early part of June. he stands to beat this by s2O.o00 to s3o,ooo.
 For five years Fike has been plunging In wheat and he is now the biggest winter wheat grower in the country. Three years ago he had 1S0.0oo acres Of winter wheat that averaged eight bushels an acre, and he made s3O.0O0 profit Two years ago he sowed 16.0oO acres of wheat and lost every cent he had put into it. He did not harvest enonugh wheat to ger seed for the crop that offers so me prospect at this time.
 Gambling on the weather has been Fike's method of chasing the festive dollar for years. He was once a Kansas railroad commissioner, elected during the populist days He has bet more than $2oo,O0o in the last 10 years that rain would fall at the proper time, and he never lost entirely until last year. He had a bumper crop 1aoa fx. nd earned him s20Ooo 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 years
 Last summer Filxe put in his wheat with extraordinary care. He bought the best Russian hard winter wheat seed he could get on the Kansas Agricultural col lege farms He plowed two inches deeper than ever before. He has four 30 horse power blowing engines and two 20 horse power gasoline engines to blow his fields. He plowed five inches instead of the usual three inches, and used two sets of harrows to smooth the ground after each blow.
 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 a big kill ing." Everybody is pulling for him. There were so many calls in the Topeka news paper 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 railway general offices for Kansas directed its agents at Colby re- port specifically every day on rain, and the government weather offices loaned the railway agent some rain gauges.
 Fike is just like the chap playing the faro bank He has worked out his sys- tenn and just keeps on gambling until he breaks the bank. Pike has not made a real Killing" since 1903, although he made a 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 Kan sas will be talking about 1t for years. In- cidentally there are a lot of other Kan sans who will make lot of money from their wheat fields