Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 March 1890 — INDIANA'S CROPS. [ARTICLE]

INDIANA'S CROPS.

Report of tho Bureau of Statistic* oa the State'* Crops in 1889. Wm. A. Peele, Chief of the Bureau of StatisticVfor Indiana, has completed that portion of his report relating to agriculture in the State during 1839, . together,,jb&Sl tables comparing that year with 1888. The wheat crop is always one of the first things inquired about by farmers. The tables show that in Indiana last year 2,773,883 acres were sown in wheat. In 1888 the acreage of wheat was 2,726,111, an increase in 1889 of 47,772 acres. In 1889 Sip total wheat crop of the State was 41,541.570 bushels, and in 18S8 it was 28,750,764 bushels. Thik makes the average yield in 1889, 14.9 bushels, and 1888, 10.5 bushels per acre. Here, for the first time, is the relative value of the last two years as wheat seasons, as shown by their actual results. The yield per acre varied greatly among the counties last year. Knox county takes the lead, with an average of 22 bushels per acre, but others follow close. Allen aver, aged 18 bushels; Elkhart, 21; Gibson, 21 Kosciusko, 19; Laporte, 20; Marshall, 19 Noble, 21; Posey, 18; Pulaski, 18; St. Joseph, 20; Sullivan, 20; Wabash, 18. This shows that the best wheat counties are not confined to any particular section of the State. The lowest yield was found ha Perry and Crawford counties, the average in each case being nine bushels. Gibion county maintains its reputation of being the leading wheat growing county in the State. Its wheat acreage in 1889 was the greatest, 69,998, and its total crop 1,469iSB bushels. Posey is a good second, with >6,305 acres and a total crop of 1,193,490 bushels. Benton county, with an average yield of fifteen bushels, raised only 15,050 bushels on its 1,670 acres of wheat. The figures are no less interesting, though less favorable, when they relate to Bom. In Indiana last year 3,418,051 acres were planted in corn, and the corn crop of the State amount to 105,542,161 . bushels. This was an average yield of 31 bushels per acre. Iu 1888 the acreage of corn was 5,419,377 ;the total yield 128,436,254 bushels, tnd the average per acre 37.6. Here Crawford County, which fell the lowest in the list of wheat growing localities, heads the list with a corn crop averaging 45 bushels per acre. Gibson county’s average was 40 bushels; that of Monroe county, 40; of Posey, 43; of Vanderburg, 40, and of Ver million, 40. The lowest average was that 9f White county, 20 bushels, and Benton’s iverage was but 21 bushels. Benton’s icreage, however, was the greatest, 82,850, »nd Tippecanoo was 81,914, Tippecanoo’s total crop was the largest, amounting to 8,457,420 bushels; Kosciusko ranked second with 2,179,580 bushels, and Knox third, with 2,0-12,511 bushels. Ohio county’s crop was the smallest, 205,663 bushels, whicn was perhaps natural, it being the smallest county. The acreage sown in oats in 1889 was 950,231; the total ettbp was 28,710,935 bushels,land the average yield per acre was 30.21 bushels. In 1888 the acreage was 937, 143, the total crop 27,493,551 bushols, and the average per acre 29.3 bushels. The greatest average yield was 43 bushels in Carroll county, and the smallest average was 13 bushels in Perry county. Here is where Benton county comes out strong, for it raised 1,420,402 bushels of oats, while Allen county, which ranks second, raised but 933,762 bushels. Ohio county is at the other extreme of the list with a total crop of 57,500 bushels. The number of acres of barley in 1889 was 19,825,-and the total crop 416,325 bushels'. The average yield per acre was 2[ bnshels. In 1888 the acreage was 18,913. the total crop 402,515 bushels and the aver )§ge yield 214 bushels. Dearborn county raised 34,056 bushels, which exceeded the crop of any other county, while Crawford’s crop of 208 bushels was the smallest. Rye was grown upon 54,451 acres in 1889, and the total crop was 871,116 bushels, and the average yield 16 bushels. This was a large increase in acreage and crop over 1888. The best average yield of rye was 40 bushels, reported from Spencer county. Buckwheat grew on 6,411 acres of Indiana soil last year, and tho crop amounted to 89,754 bushels. The clover seed crop of the State during the same period amounted to 253,728 bushels, and of timothy seed was 33,449 bushels. The crops of both in 1888 exceeded those of IB§9 by several thousand bushels. 1 In 1889, 2,349,528 tons of clover hay grew on 1,171, 764 acres, an average of two tons per acre. Of timothy hay 1,823,047 tons grew on 1,215,365 acres, an average of one and a half tons per acre. The average per acre was much larger than in 1888. The Irish potato crop last year amounted to 7,783,167 bushels raised on 79,213 acres. Of sweet potatoes the acreage was 2,772 and the crop 194,040 bushelsi. Last year 33,246,616 ponnds of butter and 519,838 pounds of cheese were produoed in the State, and Indiana cows gave 151,365,605 gallons of milk. There were raised 722,035 dozen chickens; 47,734 dozen turkeys; 19,845 dozen geese; 19,616 dozen ducks; while 21,730,638 dozen eggs were laid and 194,592 pounds of feathers plucked. During this same great year 2,384,667 rods of rail fence, 990,667 rods of bool'd fence and 1,311,316 rods of vrire feoce were built in the State.

A Story of Senator Sawyer. When Hon. Philetus Sawyer of Wisoonsin began to hew out his literary fortune in the pioey woods of the great lake region, says the Washington Post, he went to Boston to buy some pine land put up at auction. Eastern capitalists were rival bidders. They knew that Sawyer had bean over the ground and had accurate notions of what was valuable and what not Accordingly, whenever he hid they outbid him. He got nothing he bid for and returned with apparently blasted hopes. The Successful bidders later visited their purchases, and were dinel bv Mr. Sawyer. He did not even ttyen mention that he bid on nothing that was good, bat had on the other side of the Boston auction room do his bidding for him. i;hey learned, however, how baaly they h;ul been left when tney reached the woods. „