Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 October 1891 — BY RAIN AND SNOW. [ARTICLE]

BY RAIN AND SNOW.

WHEAT SAID TO BE RUINob IN NORTH DAKOTA. Grain In Stack* and Shock* Sprouting— Tli© ltcport.. Published In the Paper* Do Not Half Cover the Devastation—lmpos* Mlble to Get Teams and Machines Into the Fields. Tosses Keach Millions. The weather of the past few weeks has undone much of the good that waa done by the hue weather early in the season in North Dakota, and the farmers in the Northwest will suffer losses aggregating In the millions. The daraago can as yet only ho estimated, but that the loss will bo Tcry great-libera seems no doubt. The railroads had made special aruangemontg.to handles great crop, and the farmers considered their own plans amply sufficient. But so great was the wheat crop that, first, it was almost impossible to hire enough holp to soeuro the crop, and a very large part of it had to be left standing In the shoyk. Then it was found that the supply of thrashing machines was insufficient. and that caused a dolay whieh left fully half the crop still in the fields unthrashed when the rain camo. Bain has boon, general and abundant, and it is this which has caused the greatest loss. At Jamostown, in the North Dakota Jim Rivor Valley, rain and snow fell continually for a day and a night, and last week thero was but one full day’s wheat thrashing. Reports are received of grain sprouting in the stacks. At l'evil's Lake, in the northorn part of tho Stato, a hoavy rain foil, whieh will stop thrashing for several days. No grain has been stacked owing to tho scarcity of laborers. Lakota (N. D.) reports snow, with thrashing stopped ontirely, and fears that un'oss the woathor clears soon much of the grain will be unfit to bo thrashed. In the northern part of North Dakota there will, however, be more loss from lacx of laborors than from bad weather. Northwestern Minnesota gives about tbo same report as North Dakota. It commenced raining again about Crookston and continued all of one day. There have been only a very few days of dry weather in four weeks, and farmers are getting discouraged. In Traverse County and Central Western Minnesota the larger portion of tho wheat has not yet been thrashed and men and machines are greatly nooded. Colonel P. R Walker, of Minneapolis, says of tho situation: “I havo just returned from a trip through that sectlqn. It inado my heart ache to witness the ruin. In order to appreciate it one must actually see 1L Thero are thousands of acres of simply wonderful whoatfields almost utterly destroyed by tho rains. And the mud—lt Is porfeetly execrable. Day after day wo tramped in tho slush across fields—slush half knoo-deop. I went out with a Government surveying party to establish town lines, and tho rain and mud broke up our party, and wo were forced to abandon the work entirely. “The reports published In the papers do not lover half tho devastation. As far as the eyo can reach in every direction are great big shocks of wheat, and it all would Dave graded No. 1 hard had It been thrashed out before the rains felL

Now nothing can bo done. It is too late to save even a modicum. Were the shocks In a condition to bo thrashed, it would be a physical Impossibility to do anything with tho crop, for the reason that teams cannot haul tho wheat, to the thrashers nor hanl fuel to the ongines. “Tho difficulty in tho first place arose . over getting help to do the thrashing, \ but tho railway companies succeeded In gottlng both men and machine into the fields. When they arrived they wer* powerless. Tho mud was so deop that tho horses mired to their bellies, and nothing can be done now until the sun dries out both the soil and tho shocks of wheat. H lt is painful to stand on a prominence and survoy the situation. Everywhere thrashing machines are visible—all abandoned—and tho wheat for hundreds of mllos ruined." His Fart Was Too Heavy. W. B. Arnold, an actor in tho “Blue Jeans" Company, severed his connection with that organization at Zanesville, Ohio, upon rather extraordinary grounds. Mr. Arnold Is 60 years of ago. In his part as Col. Henry Clay Rtsencr he Is obliged to seize and carry bodily off the stage Miss Jennie Endsly, who tips the beam at 17T pounds This task was too much for the veteran, who was willing, howover, as a compromise to drag the fair one off. To this she objected, and a younger and stronger actor will be secured. *