Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 123, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 May 1919 — Largest Wheat Crop Is Forecast [ARTICLE]

Largest Wheat Crop Is Forecast

Winter Grain Condition 99.8 Per Cent, and Guaranteed Value Near Two Billion Dollars

The condition of winter wheat in the United States April 1 w r as 99.8 per cent, the highest on record, on the largest acreage ever planted in this country, the department of agriculture announced. The winter wheat promise on April 1 of 837,000,000 bushels is nearly double the yearly average production in the United States for the five years before the war (442,000,000 in 1909-13) and is nearly 50 per cent "larger than the production during the war years 1914-18, when the average was 562,000,000. At the government’s guaranteed price of $2,26 a bushel, the estimated value of the crop is $1,891,620,000. The condition improved during the winter, an unusual occurrence due to the very favorable winter leather, particularly the absence of alternate freezing and thawing, W’hich appears also to have resulted in a minimum of winter killing. “A striking feature of the present situation,” the announcement stated, “is a uniformly good condition in practically all important wheatproducing states, ranging from 104 in Ohio down to 96 in North Carolina, among the states having 1,000,000 acres or more. “The lowest figure reported from any state is 89 in XV isconsin. Kansas with approximately 11,000,000 out of the United States total of 49,000,000 acres, shows a condition of 101. The present moisture conditions throughout the entire country, with unimportant local exceptions, are very favorable, it was stated. The condition of the crop is higher than has been reported on April 1 since 1882, and the indicated yield is higher than any actual yield in any year, with the exception of 1914, when the yield per acre was 18.5 bushels per planted acre, following an April 1 condition of 95.6. The average condition of winter wheat on April 1 was 99.8 per cent of a normal, against 78.6 on April 1, 1918; 63.4 on April 1, 1917, and 82.3, the average condition for the past ten years on April 1. There was a decrease in condition from December 1, 1918, to April 1, 1919. of 1.2 per cent as compared with an average decline in the past ten years of 5.9 points between those dates. The average condition of rye on April 1 was 90.6 per cent of a normal, against 85.8 on April 1, 1918; 86.0 on April 1, 1917, and 88.6 the average condition for the past ten years on April 1.