Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 December 1891 — VALUE OF THE CROPS. [ARTICLE]

VALUE OF THE CROPS.

Farmers in Better Ltiek Than for Many Years Before. The statistical reports to the Secretary of Agriculture show that the condition of growing wheat is 85.3. The returns showing tho condition of the coming crops of winter grains are not generally favorable. On the Atlantic coast some injury is reported on early sown areas from tho He sian tlv. The season was not favorable for seeding in the South on account of continued dry weather, and germination was slow from the same cause. Rains in the late autumn have improved the prospect. In the Western. States seeding was late, the seed-bed hard and cloddy, generation slow and growth unfavorable until November, when material improvement was seen in most fields. In some districts tho Hessian fly made Its appearance, causing damage. The average condition of the crop is .’5.3, the figures for the principal States of tho great wheat belt being: Ohio, SO; Michigan, 92; Indiana, 91; Illinois, 80; lowa, 92; Missouri, 73; Kansas, 75; Nebraska, 94: California, 97. The average for New York is 97; Pennsylvania, 92; Maryland, 87; Virginia. So. The condition of rye is a litt e higher than that of wheat, making an average of 88.8. Tho returns duly consolidated make the average farm value of the current crops of the year as follows; Corn, 42.’2 cents a bushel; wheat, 85.3; rye, 77.4; barley, 54.0; oats. 32,2; buckwheat, 57.9; potatoes, 37.1; tobacco, cigar leaf, 14.1 a pound; manufacturing and export leaf, 7.5: hay. $8.39 a ton. Tho price of corn is 2.9 cents per bushel more than the average of ten years from 1880 and only lour tenths of a cent less than tho average for the decade from 187 a In the States of larger production prices are as follows: Ohio. 41 cents; Indiana, 38; Illinois, 37; lowa, 30; Missouri, 38; Kansas, 34; Nebraska, 26. The latter State, where corn is cheapest, has reported a higher value only four times in fifteen years. The average value of the whole crop since 1883 has been higher only in 18s7 and 1890, when the yield was only about twenty bushels an acra The value of the wheat crop is 2.5 cents per bushel higher than the average of ten years from 1880 and has been exceeded only once (in 188 S) since 1883. In the States of the Atlantic coast an I those on the Gulf of Mexico, except Texas, the value is from $1 to $1.15; in the Ohio Valley, from 85 to 86 cents; beyond the Mississippi, from 70 in North Dakota to 81 in lowa.