Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 September 1903 — HAVOC ON THE FARMS [ARTICLE]

HAVOC ON THE FARMS

RAIN, FRO3T AND BNOW CAUSE DEVASTATION. Western States Buffer Losses In the Millions Commercial Interests of the Whole Country Will Be AffectedCorn Crop in Danger. Snow, frost and rain have played havoc with the crops in the western part of the Mississippi valley. The damage done through the cold wave, which came sweeping down from norJbwest Canada, is reported to be enormous. Snow two feet deep cover* the ground in certain parts of North Dakota, and around Winnipeg the storm developed into a blizzard, before which neither man nor beast could stand. Horse* nnd other live stock perished nt Hartney, near Winnipeg. The cold wave followed tlie rainstorm# that have caused rot nnd mildew in Minnesota and in the Dakotas generally. Snow has fallen as far south as Cheyenne, which Monday night was freezing under a temperature of 30 degrees above zero. Here are some temperatures for Monday night: Cheyenne, Wyo. . .30 Concordia. Kan. ...4« Lauder, Wyo 36 Des Moines ........64 Denver 40 Chicago 67 Dispatches from St. Paul tokl of ruin to wheat and flax in tlie Northwest amounting to millions of dollars. Nearly all the grain in shock, estimated at 50 per cent, and all the standing grain ia buried under snow and wa-ter. Eight inches of rain had fallen in forty-eight hours. Railroad tracks have been washed out and trains from the Pacific coast have been for two days pushing through deep snow and are reported ten to twenty houra late. The rain has put a stop to thrashing, and with a shortage of caoh grain on the market, farmers arc greatly discouraged. The grade of wheat that will be thrashed later will be lowered generally. In the Red River valley fields are so muddy that it will be several days be» fore tlie thrashing machines can be moved. The situation is especially hard for rhe farmers of northern Minnesota, as their crops have already-been severely damaged by drought. Much damage has been done in Wisconsin by rain, especially in the northwestern part of the State. Rivers are high, bridges have been destroyed and dwellers on bottom lauds have been driven from their homes. Saw mills and paper mills on the Wisconsin river are •hut (jown because of the floods. The railroad reports say that more rain has fallen in the western and northwestern parts of the State in three day* than has fallen all the rest of thM year. Pevere storms were reported frdfljT Sparta, Wis., where, it is said, hardly any thrashing lias been done for three weeks. Many farmers in lowa and Illinois, the report will say, have given up hope of more than a half crop of corn. „ lowa raised 298,000,000 bushel* of corn last year, quite a percentage of which was rendered unmerchantable by the wet fall, which kept the crop from maturing before frosts came. The authorities in lowa have not looked for over three-quarters of n crop this year under the best conditions, the government report of &ept. 1 suggesting a of 214,000,000 bushels. At least half of this promised yield could be cut off by* a hard freeze, meaning a loss to the farmera of lowa alone ou the present basis of values, around 50 cents in Chicago, of $50,000,000. Railroad officials share the present alarm. Tlie hopes of a wheat crop in the Northwest hnye been destroyed already by excessive rains and’ mow storms, and if the corn crop follows the same course the railroads will not be able to keep up their earuings to what they have been heretofore.* While merchandise traffic continues extremely good that is also bound to fall off if the farmer# are not able to spend money as freely aa they have been doing.