Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 September 1894 — THE COUNTRY’S CORN CROP. [ARTICLE]

THE COUNTRY’S CORN CROP.

A Great Falling Off From the average Is Estimated. The New York World, Wednesday, pub ■ lished a detailed statement from hundreds of Western towns showing a heavy shortage in the corn crop. It says: The biggest crop raised by a single, country is Indian corn, and the United States the country that raises it. In a goon year the United States produces 2,000.000.003 bushels of this staple, and has produced more. At the average market price these 2,000,000,000 bushels are worth f 1,000,000,000, or about ten times as much as the gold production of the whole world for a year. A severe drought has greatly reduced the yield. Just how much many people would be very glad to know, and the World therefore prints to-day reports from nearly 300 correspondents scattered throughout the corn region. “These reports coyer the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Wisconsin. Minnesota, lowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota. These twelve States include the great corn belt of the United States, and in an average year produce about 75 per ?ent. of the corn crop. The government report makes the yield this year 1,100,000,003 bushels, but most all of the corn authorities say this is too low. These reports indicate about two-thirds of an average crop, or in the neighborhood of 1.330,000,006 bushels. The greatest reduction has been in the States west of the Mississippi and their loss has been heavy. Kansas, which raised more than 15OJKM).OOO bushels in a good year, reports only 42.000,000 bushels. But the States east of the Mississippi, where rain is a more certain quantity, pull up the average.”