Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 May 1896 — HALF A CROP IS SOWN. [ARTICLE]

HALF A CROP IS SOWN.

Wheat Season in North Dakota la Greatly Delayed. Grain receivers in Duluth, Minn., have received reports during the past week from the entire wheat country in North Dakota. A consensus of interviews obtained indicates that the area sown to date in thnt State is equal to less than 50 per cent of the acreage sown a year ago. The reports range from 3 per cent in the Red River Valley to 70 per cent south of the international boundary. A' correspondent, who has been personally investigating the situation in the flooded counties of Minnesota and North Dakota, bordering on the Red river, sends an exhaustive report, showing that the conditions are unfavorable for the wheat crop. Large areas are under water, and farm work has been so badly delayed, or entirely prevented, that not more than 60 per cent of the usual acreage will bear wheat The eight counties in question had last,year a yield of 30,000,000 bushels, and this will be cut down at least 10,000,000 bushels. As an instance of the condition of affairs, one can go in a rowboat over open prairie from Warren, Minn., forty miles north to Hallock, and it would be dangerous to venture with a wagon more than three miles from the Great Northern tracks between these points. The streets of most of the town# are flooded and impassable.