The Wahpeton times. [volume] (Wahpeton, Richland County, Dakota [N.D.]) 1879-1919, 1917-08-02

oloiu cdiuc dlOHS covering Jne
ground with white marbles and by
noon those same farmers had no
wheat left standing to profit by the
moisture left in the wake of the
hail.
In this section there is one strip
of good wheat, about as miles wide,
extending southwesterly from
Towner and Rugby to Wasburn.
There the yield may run from 10
to IA bushels.
Near Minot and north and west
wheat is poor. The stand is light,
heads are short and there won't be
much straw. This holds good for
nearly all wheat to the Canadian
line and to Montana. A cold, dry
spring was responsible.
East of Minot many fields have
been blown clean by winds. 1 saw
one great wheat field as clean of
wheat as though it had been fresh
ly plowed. A day and night of
wind tore that wheat out and blew
it away.
In the central and western por-
tions pastures have dried up, and
grazing for cattle is dependent on
hoped for rains. This likely will
result in livestock being sent to the
feeders earlier than ever this year.
Coming east from AIinot wheat
conditions improve, slowly at first.
until Devils Lake is reached. From
there to the Red river wheat be-
gins to look better.
Wheat in the Devils Lake Sec
ton has the appearance now of
yielding an average of 10 bushels,
but many fields won't be above the
five-bushel mark. Two years ago
this same section returned Is bus.
to the acre. Oats and barley will
be light, below the average.
The best whea, fields in the
whole state are near Larimore.
Here they had rains early enough
to do considerable good at the
right growing season. Near Nord-
land the farmers say wheat is as
fine this year as it was in the
"bumper" year-1915. One grow
err showed me field which he hopes
will run 35 bushels to the acre. But
that, believe will be the only 35-
bushel field in the whole state. In
this section it is estimated that the
average yield will be slightly above
Is bushels.
North of this district, toward
the Canadian border, the yield will
ruin we'll, probably 20 bushels.
This is particularly true of CavaI-
Ter county. One farmer near
Pembina told me that while every
other farmer near was getting good
wheat, he would have his first
wheat failure Of his 20 years. wheat
growing career.
"Planted to early" he explain
ed. 81 have always did that, and
always got good crops. But this
year the fellows who got their crop
in after mine are doing better"
In Grand Forks there is decid
edly optimistic wheat tone. This
year wheat around Grand Forks
looks fairly we'll. Last year there
was hardly any crop at all, rust
and floods preventing.
The normal wheat crop of the
state is around 100,000.000 BUSH
els. That means an average of
about Il bushels to the acre.
This year there will be few fields
going over IL bushels, all up in the
northeastern section. and there will
be many fields running down to
five bushels an acre. In fact. it
looks like there would be more five
and eight bushel fields than there
will be fields yielding over IL bus.
cit S half crop year" farmer
after farmer asserted. and their
fields look it.
A half crop year would mean
50,000.000 bushels. but allowing
for the Improvement brought by
the late June and early July rains.
and the general tendency toward
pessimistic forecasts in bad wealth
err year. it seems that an estimate of
60.000.000 bushels may be as good a
guess as one can make now.
This estimate allows for good
yields in the southeastern section.
fair crops up the Red river valle:'
and a still better yield in the. north
eastern section. 1t allows for :,
fair yield in a middle state strip
and in few counties near the
southwestern point of the state and
for half crops in all the rest of the
state. barring scattered localities
which enjoyed the rainfalls which
were not shared by their neighbors.
1t has been said that North Oak
ota "has a spotted wheat stand"
this wear. That's true. due 10