Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 August 1901 — GREAT WINTER WHEAT CROP. [ARTICLE]

GREAT WINTER WHEAT CROP.

Total of 725,000,000 Bushels of the Cereal Is a Kecord-Breaker. To Western farmers who have suffered great loss from the drought there is a consolation. While their corn crop has been greatly damaged, the drought produced conditions which have resulted in the largest winter wheat crop in the history of the country. To the drought directly is this immense wheat crop due. Winter wheat was being harvested when the drought struck Kansas and Missouri. And the weather which was so unfavorable to corn was ideal for the wheat harvest.

In Kansas, whiih shows a falling off of 27 per cent from last year's crop of corn, the winter wheat will amount to 1(JO,000.000 bushels, by far the greatest crop in history. And the threshing reports show it to be better than ever before. There will be 25,000,000 bushels in Oklahoma. Missouri, where the loss to corn has been greatest,, will have 22,000.000 of wheat, and Nebraska, which up to three years ago never grew winter wheat at all, shows a return of 40,000,000 bushels. In lowa, Nebraska and South Dakota, the harvest has been begun. In Minnesota and North Dakota, where the great bulk of wheat is grown, the crop is almost ready to harvest, with every prospect of equaling the Itest records. The winter crop in these States, unless some disaster overtakes it, will certainly amount to 425,000,000 bushels, while the spring wheat crop will be, at a low estimate, 300,000,000 bushels, a total of 725,000,000 bushels. When it is remembered that the highest previous wheat crop in the United States was 075.000,000, the record fCT 1808, the enormous gain in the production of the breadstuff within the last twelve months can be realized. As far as it is possible to estimate values thus far in advance of market prices, the farming communities will certainly be better off this year than lust, in spite of the damage done by the drought to the corn crop.