Rensselaer Republican, Volume 28, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 October 1895 — CORN TO BURN. [ARTICLE]

CORN TO BURN.

The Garneriusr of 1895 Is Certainly a Monster. The Chicago Tribune, thus suggests a novel way of disposing of the surplus corn crop: “On a 2,500,000,000 bushel crop the West will have corn to burn. According to a Kansas City dispatch a packing house company has already issued order-* to its Wichita house to begin tjig. dse of corn for fuel so soon as it c«n be bought for 12 cents a bushel* Last year the unusual and abnormal feature in the grain situation was the feeding of wheat to farm animals. Little attention was paid to it at first, except as an experiment, but in the aggregate it amounted to millions of bushels, aud was reflected in reduced stocks in farmers' hands. Burning of corn for fuel is less of a novelty than feeding of wheat to hogs, as it has been general enough on several occasions to attract a great deal of attention. Both are direct results of overproduction. The eonditiohs in wheat which made stock-feeding practicable are all present in corn in an aggravated form to make its use as fuel in many sections feasible. The. .1805 crop of corn is practically made, and without doubt it*will be a record-breaker. On the basis of present prices corn will be cheaper than coal for fuel during this fall and winter in States west of the Mississippi River. It is said that experiments have shown that a ton of dry corn will go further iu produeiug steam than a ton 'if coal. The oil iu the corn makes it especially adapted for hot fires. It is clean to hiyullo and almost smokeless. A prom* inent operator on the Bonn! of Trade offfprod to forfeit SIO,OOO if he could not 'furnish the ‘Alley L’ road with corn for fuel at a less cost than that of the coal supply." - But on the other hand reports from Nebraska. Kansas and lowa prints, where in times of coal famine resort has been made to corn for fuel, state that its use is neither satisfactory nor profitable. The heat is so intense that the iron of furnaces am! stoves is soon burned out. Then, too. it is not steady, which renders it impracticable for making steam.