Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 August 1917 — MORE FARMERS TO SOW WHEAT [ARTICLE]

MORE FARMERS TO SOW WHEAT

Promise of $2 a Bushel Will Serve to Increase Acreage. The call of the secretary of agriculture for increasing the wheat acreage of Indiana 25 per cent, means the sowing of 2.800,000 acres of| wheat this fall. Although this seems large at first thought, it is not large when we make a short analysis. There are in Indiana 215,800 farms. If the above wheat acreage .were equally dis-

tributed, th-ere be only 13.4 acres on each farts.. The average farm contains nineiiy-eigkt acres. If we discaixi 4-0 ce®K of thvi land _' j as being uusniied to vaeat produc-j tion we von] a gno’K’ acres and still Only snoiv w&eat on. the same land onee every fear years. Surely this is’.sot to© ©fseii. .■' Many. farmers are »ov getting $75 an acre tor. liefir wheat crop. There are s®»e_ of «®rarse„ who are not doing so well, feat ea the aver-

age, farmers of the state are making more money on the wheat crop than, ever before. This is stimulating a great deal of interest and the guarantee of $2.00 „ per bushel which the government has placed on the crop to be seeded this fall is sufficient argument that the wheat is needed. Many farmers who have usually grown a large acreage of oats will this year sow considerable wheat. Many farmers in Benton. Newton, Jasper and counties have made this decision as is shown by the many inquiries about seed wheat that are daily coming to J. C. Beavers, of Purdue university, state leader of wheat campaign. In these sections sixty bushels of oats to the acre is considered a good yield. At present prices such a crop would be worth about $34.00 an acre. This same land will produce twenty and twenty-five bushels of wheat to the acre. At $2.00 per bushel wheat is much more profitable than oats and for this reason a greatly increased acreage of wheat will soon be sown this fall. By sowing some wheat instead of all oats, labor is better distributed at harvest time, as wheat is cut before oats. It is also easier to obtain a good stand of clover in wheat than in oats. These are points which thinking farmers are carefully considering and will add much impetus to the increased wheat production movement.