Rensselaer Journal, Volume 12, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 September 1902 — GERMAN GRAIN SUPPLY SHORT [ARTICLE]

GERMAN GRAIN SUPPLY SHORT

Cold and Wet Weather Spoils Crops In Emperor Wilhelm’s Domain. FIELD FOR AMERICAN FARMERS Abundant Yield on Thle Side of the Ocean Will Serve to Furnish A’l That Is Necessary to Tide Over the Difficulty. Washington, D. C., special: Germany will undoubtedly furnish a large market for the abundant crop of American farmers, as abnormally cold weather has retarded the growth of German crops and reduced the yield. This unseasonable weather, which has existed so long and continued until late in August, assumes the character of an impending calamity to the cereal harvests of the year. Official advices received at the department of state are to the effect that until early in August the season, although remarkably late, was still hopeful, and the condition of the growing crops on June 15 and a month later was, in general, quite above that of the preceding year. Harvest Is Backward. But as the time came for the wheat and rye to ripen, the cold, wet, cloudy weather kept back the harvest long after the usual date, and when the work of gathering in the grain finally began greatly complicated the task of saving the crops. In many fields the rye and wheat have been cut and lain in swaths or put up in shocks, exposed to rain and storm, until the grain has been seriously damaged by sprouting. Unfit for Breadstuffs. The first samples of the new crop of rye are almost without exception damp, more dr less unripe, and even when artificially dried of inferior grade. While the German grain crop this year will be nearly up to the average in quantity, its quality has been seriously damaged and large quantities of rye which would have been used as breadstuff will now be distilled or used for feeding animals. It is too early to estimate the extent of this damage, but accounts from all parts of the empire indicate it will be considerable.