Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1913-08-13
IOWA IS GROWING
AN IMMENSE CROP
Year of 1913 Will Yield Another
Bumper Crop i'm Hawkeye State.
SIX TO EIGHT HUNDRED
MILLION ESTIMATED VALUE.
Some Interesting Statistics of Great
er Iowa With Respect to Crop
Indications For This Year.

Another bumper crop in old Iowa
Although Iowa last year produced
the greatest crops in the history of
the state, so large crop in fact
that it was not thought possible
that this year would be above the
average, nevertheless the crops this
season are turning out so far almost
as good and in some cases better
than year ago. The grand old state
=. will again produce from S600,000,-
900 to $S00,000,000 worth of pro-
ducts from her fields and from her
fiocks and herds.
Year in and year out old Iowa sell
dom falls short in her annual con-
tribution of around S600,O00,000 to
the worlds wealth. The mines of
the rich ore districts give up their
precious ore but once and it is gone
forever, but the rich, fertile fields of
this great Mississippi valley, under
the careful handling and cultivation
of the Iowa farmer, add to the
wealth of the world increasingly
year after year.
A wet spell in May which extend
ed well into planting time keeping
the fields so wet that work was i'm
possible gave no little concern over
getting the corn in. But while corn
planting was being delayed grass and
small grain was fourishing. The
cool wet weather kept up until the
last week of May when the weather
cleared up and became unusually
warm. The corn planters were busy
as soon as this better weather came.
The fine weather continued and by
the Fourth of July the corn in most
of the state was up to the normal for
that season. Throughout the month
of July the weather has been favor
able to corn growth and the crop has
therefore been f1ourishing.
There is a total acreage in corn
which is 14,O66 acres in excess Of
the acreage last year. While it is too
early yet to predict what the yield
will be, nevertheless a splendid crop
is practically assured provided the
weather is favorable to it's maturity.
Last year the state produced the
tAS In history
with a total of 420,000,000 bushels.
The crop of 1911 totaied 326,OOO,-
900 bushels and the crop Of 1910
S35,OOO,O00 bushels.
Iowa is growing the greatest crop
of alfalfa this year in the history OF
the state. The acreage in alfalfa
has been increasing from year to
year as the farmers are learning
how to grow the crop in the various
there is a total alfalfa acreage OF
51,490 acres. Last year the acreage
in alfalfa was 46,644, the increase in
the acreage this year being IL per
cent. The crop this year is much
better than usual. There will be
three cuttings in the majority of the
alfalfa fields of the state giving to-
tai yield in many localities of five
to seven tons to the acre.
The hay crop this year is also un-
usually good both of timothy and
clover. The acreage of tame and
wild hay is 3,359,365, a decrease of
over 10000 acres as compared to
last year. More clover is being
grown than heretofore and some OF
the meadows have been put in corn
this year.
With the small grain both the win
ter wheat, spring wheat and oats
crops are excellent. The area OF
winter wheat this season is estimat-
365,300 acres, making the total acre
age In wheat l,04O acres. The
winter wheat acreage exceeded that
of last year by 1900 acres, but there
is considerably less acreage in spring
wheat this year than last. The win
ter wheat is threshing out unusually
good quality and yield. The oats
crop last year was the largest in the
history OF the state, totaling over
2O6,OOO,000 bushels as against l22,-
100000 in 1911 and l6S,OOO,-
900 bushels in 1910.
The barley acreage this year Is
estimated at 36S,600 acres as against
sSs,41O acres reported by township
assessors in 1912. The crop is fully