Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 May 1896 — A BOUNTEOUS HARVEST. [ARTICLE]

A BOUNTEOUS HARVEST.

It Is Predicted by Those Who Study the Crop Outlook. It is an accepted fact that whatever conditions affect the agricultural interests of a country will have a direct bearing on all its other industries. In other words, whatever tends to aid or injure farming pursuits will beneficently or disastrously affect every other important interest. It is a matter for congratulation, .therefore, that exceptionally favorable .reports are received regarding the outlook for a splendid crop in the corn belt region. Copious rains had fallen during the spring and put the ground fn splendid cbpditipn for seeding and growing. The fears of another drouth have long since been laid to rest and the agriculturist looks hopefully forward to a rich reward for his toil. Not only does the farmer expect a good crop this year, but the conditions thus far have been so much more favorable than in several years l past that he expects a crop which will fully make up for a few short ones. Nor is the expectation without reason. There is not n single condition lacking, either of soil or weather, which should bring this hope to, the farmer. The.sqLl has received more moisture in. the shape of rain and snow than in mhny years iihd the weather has beeri all that t'6uld i f>e desired for growing. Therefore, if all these <J9P n t for anything, they indicate a j|ear of prosperity throughout the great

Wert. Eren before the first week in Ul7 almost half the corn was planted, with considerable of it showing nicely above ground and doing well. In many localities it was even then several inches high. As the rainfall has been fairly frequent in its visitations daring the portion of the season which has passed and folly np to normal, it is bnt fair to assnme that this normal condition will continue, and that the hopes of the farmers will be fully realized. Reports from widely different localities in the great corn producing States point to the fact that moisture has saturated the soil to a much greater depth than in many previous years. This is particularly true with regard to Nebraska, where the favorable outlook of the present time has not, in many parts of the State, been excelled, even in the opinion of old inhabitants. In fßct, the prospect is so encouraging that farmers all over the State are letting go their corn and grain, to which they had been holding tenaciously since last harvest, in the dread that the drouth period was not at an end. They are now shipping it eastward in big quantities or feeding it to their stock and fattening pigs for the market During the past week there has been on exhibition in a window of the city ticket office of the Burlington road at Chicago a sample of rye plucked in Furnas County, Nebraska, toward the end of April. It stood 33 to 34 inches high and was, even at that early date, nicely headed. Alfalfa about the same time was knee high, and small grains were looking exceptionally advanced for that time of the year. The Chicago newspapers, realizing the close tie that binds it to the West, have dilated at frequent dates on the favorable prospect for a bounteous harvest.