The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-05-29
Last Fall He Bet $4,000 on
Rain in Kansas.
Now He Will Clean Up at to 1
Rate.
AIDE READY FOR CROP
Extra Pains Taken When Seed
Was SOWn.
Promises Family Trip-Then
Back to Kansas.

Colby, Kan, May 29.-"Jim" Fike.
the Kansas wheat 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. And he
has won, almost five to one, and his
winnings may be seven or eight to
one. Fike never had such wheat
prospect in 15 years as he has at the
present If he has only the average
kansas yield of wheat he stands to
clean up more than $4,000 on the
one wheat crop. If rains continue
during May and the early part of
June, he stands to beat this by $4,000
to $4,000.
For five years F'ike has been plung-
ing in wheat, and he is now the big
gest winter wheat grower in the coun-
try. Three years ago he had $50, 600
acres of winter wheat that averaged
eight bushels an acre, and he made
$4,000 profit. Two years ago he
sowed $1,000 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.
One Total Loss in is Years.
Gambling on the weather has been
Fixes method of chasing the festive
dollar for years. He was once
Kansas railroad commissioner, elect
ed during the Populist days. He has
10 years that rain would fall at the
proper time, and he never lost entire
ly until last year. He had bumper
crop on 1900 acres in 1908, and
crop that earned him $4,000 in 1908.
Last summer Fike put in his wheat
with extraordinary care. He bought
the best Russian hard winter wheat
seed that he could get on the Kansas
Agricultural college farms. He
plowed two inches deeper than ever
To nh or
steam blowing engines, and two 20
horsepower gasoline engines to pillow
his fields. He plowed five inches
instead of the usual three inches, and
used two sets of harrows to smooth
the ground after each pillow.
Rain Gave Good Start.
Two hundred acres of ground was
turned over and narrowed each day.
No rain fell for seven weeks last
summer, and no blowing was done I'M
til the rain came late in July. Then
the plows started. The seeding was
fore, and rains came in the fall just
at the right time to give the seed a
good start before the most unusual
winter Kansas ever had began late in
November. From November until
April snow was on the ground all the
time, a total of 81 inches falling in
that period.
In former years rain in March or
April had determined whether or not
Fike and his neighbors would have
a wheat crop. This year the heavy
SHOWS delayed the time when rain
was needed more than a month.
Everyone in Kansas has been
watching the rain reports from the
western part of the state. Kansas
people are interested in F'ike and his
weather gambling. They want him
to win, and make a big killing"
Everybody is pulling for him.
He Wins Night of May 10.
The rain did not come until the
night of May 10, and then it came in
plenty. There were showers for
three days previous, but not enough
to do much good, the total for the
week up to May 10 being .21 of an
inch. But a little over two inches of