Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1917-12-16

on each side his plate, and some Of them
are exceedingly long. In my letters about
the great American industries have shown
how many of them surpass those of the
kaiser, and the spoon write of today is the
longest of all. l refer to the corn crop. 1t
is a vital factor in our fight with the Ger
mans. In the shape of grain, flour, money
and meat, it is filling our banks, our ware
houses and the ships which are crossing the
ocean loaded with food for Our allies in Eu-
rope. There is nothing like it on the face
of the globe. 1t is the greatest crop Of all
time and all nations, and upon it today are
founded our hopes for the future.
Have you any idea what the corn grown
in the United States this year will amount
to? I have before me the latest estimates
of the Agricultural Department. From its
statisticians, scattered throughout every
corn raising section OF the Union, it has fig
ured up the possibilities. 1t estimates the
amount at just about 3,2O0,OO0OO0 bushels,
and you cannot buy bushel Of it anywhere
for less than 81 40 The average price Nov
ember was ST .46 per bushel. The total
value of the crop is more than four billion
dollars. If it were turned into gold eagles,
worth $40 each, there would be 2OO,OOO,OOO
of them, so many that if the Wandering Jew,
who is supposed to live forever, sat down
before pile of such gold pieces one hundred
years before the pilgrims landed on Ply
mouth Rock and counted gold piece to the
ba No
still on the job.
The sum is so great that before the war
began it would have paid our public debt
four times over. 1t is so great that it will
pay the interest on any debt we are likely
to incur. At per cent it would equal the
dividends on more than eighty billion dol
lars. The crop this year is equal in value to
all the money we had in circulation in 1916
1t is equal to more than half the value of all
our farm animals, and to more than that of
MI the manufactures we exported last year.
Looking upon our corn fields as one great
gold mine, we shall get out of them in
single year more than sixteen times as
much as all the precious metals we have
taken from Alaska since we bought that
country of the Russians. We shall get forty
times as much as all the gold mined in the
United States within the past twelve months
and thrice as much as all the gold taken out
of South Africa since the precious metal
was discovered at johannesburg many years
ago. The total is more than eight times as
great as all the gold and silver product of
the whole earth in any one year since the
world began. Moreover, we shall have just
% +la
for every year during the ages to come. This
gold mine renews itself Like the widows
cruise, it is always full, and it will feed the
United States to the end of time.
And now look again at the magnitude of
the crop and consider the mighty mass of
foodstuffs of which it is made A single
grain of corn planted in the earth Yields
more than thousand-fod have raised
many an ear on my farm in Virginia which
had more than 900 kernels on the cob and |
have had two or three ears on single stalk
The volume of the corn crop is beyond com
prehension To say that it measures more
than 3,2OO,000OO0 bushels of shelled corn
gives no idea of its immensely. To see what
the figures mean, let us load the corn upon
wagons. We shall put forty bushels, or
more than ton, in each wagon. Such
load would be enough for two horses We
shall try to load the whole crop and shall
start the procession eastward putting the
noses of the horses at the tailboards of the
wagons in front Of them, allotting to each
team forty feet on the roadway. How far
away do you think. the first wagon would
be when the last wagon was moving? Sup
rcsf we starf 1T the MissiSsi1,r, r;.,ar ,,,o1d