Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1915-09-23

Damage in the Badger State Is
Comparatively Small.
CORN CROP HIT HEAVIEST
Number of SiIos Which Preserve the
Grain Avert Heavy Loss-To-
bacco Yield Is Largely
Affected.

Madison.-FTost damage is the topic
OF discussion in the middle West a.
| this time.
Ihat Wisconsin is in the district
hit by the recent frosts is admitted
but how does this frost damage at
| feet this state in comparison with
| other states? Iowa and Illinois were
not left untouched and we have no
reports from Indiana or Ohio, but as
the frost covered Michigan, it is ap-
! parent that the states Immediately
south of that state may have come in
| for share of the general loss. But
how about Wisconsin?
Aside from tobacco, which is con-
siderable of crop in Wisconsin, corn
is about the only crop largely grown
that is affected by the frost. Even
corn is crop minor to hay and pas
turage and Of little more consequence
| than oats. Material to the stock in
| dustry as corn is in this state, we are
| able to stand considerable reduc-
ton in its feed value without Grip
ping our live stock industry.
Again, we do not grow corn for the
market, save for seed, and from this
standpoint we are fortunate. for corn
that will bring little on the market,
if indeed it is saIable at all, may be
pretty good feed for live stock.
Again, in Wisconsin we have the
silos that are calculated to preserve
the greatest percentage Of the value
of corn that may be affected by frost.
Much of WiscOnsin's corn appears to
have entirely escaped the frost, and
that which is affected will be saved
almost entirely by the silos. So it is
apparent that our loss, while we re-
greet it, is small in comparison with
that of other states, and but a trife of
what it would have been were it not
for the good sense that has led the
people of the state into the live stock
industry.
Once more, our hay and grain crops
are so heavy this year, and the pas
lures have been so supremacy good,
that the year will be more than an
ordinarily good one Notwithstanding
the untimely frost. Nor will the re-
duction of the corn crop bring it to
as low a point as has frequently been
reached in such great corn states as
Illinois through drought in recent
years. The farmers will have no trou-
BILE in substituting some of the heavy
oat and rye crop for the slight decline
in the feed value of the corn crop,
and thus the animal industry will go
on as usual.
1t is singularly fortunate that this
year of untimely frost is the one of
all those of recent years when the
farmers of the state have been busy
building siIos. 1t is as if some IN
known agency for good had spurred
the farmers on in this matter Wis
cOnsin has more silos than any other
state, in fact a large percentage of
those of all states, and is building
them at more rapid rate than any
other portion of the country. This
has been the situation ever since siIos
became a recognized method of han
ding stock foods and more so this
year than ever before.
Particularly in the upper counties
is the damage to corn a minor matter.
There, more than in any other portion
of the state, hay, pastHrage and oats
and rye are depended upon for the
support of the animal industry, and
these crops have been exceedingly
large. In many instances in that por-
ton Of the state, oats are yielding
well toward and sometimes over a
hundred bushels per acre. 1t is read
lily seen that few acres of such yield
will materially make up for a short
age in the corn crop.
So, taken all in all, Wisconsin again
is fortunate. In fact, there is never a
season so abnormal as to materially
affect the prosperity of the farmers of
the state. 1t is this impossibility OF
material loss through freaks Of eli
mateS that marks Wisconsin as pre-
eminently fitted for the animal indus
try. With an abundance of yield in
all other crops, we can shoulder our
small loss in the corn crop and smile
over our good fortune. Unlike the
grain farmer of another state who
found consolation in the fact that the
storm that destroyed his crops cheat
ed the chinch bugs, we can console
ourselves on the fact that our pros
perity will be as great as ever be-
cause the season gave in the average
of yields more than it took from a
single crop.