Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 89, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 July 1901 — CURRENT COMMENTS [ARTICLE]

CURRENT COMMENTS

The emotional and almost hysterical state of the popular mind throughout those* sections of the West and Southwest that have been suffering from a total or partial drought of more than three weeks’ duration can be better understood and appreciated by city residents, perhaps, if the situation be stripped of all sentimentality and presented in a purely business light. vast areas in the Mississippi and Missouri valleys in which the main dependence of the people in town and country is corn. Corn means more to them than cotton to the people of the South or wheat to the people of the Northwest. It means more to them than all the other products of their farms put together, because, in addition to its market value, corn meets practically every necessity of man and beast. It answers the purpose, on occasion, of wheat, oats, barley and rye, and in the absence of these can be substituted for them. And it can be put to uses for which the other grains individually or collectively are unsuited. In the matter of fodder and feed for live stock alone, corn is almost an essential in the cattle and hog raising and fattening region. The total wheat crop of the United States might fail and the other nations of the earth would and could contribute toward making the shortage good. When the price of wheat flour in this countryadvances beyond a certain point the wheat of the world is directed toward our ports, and if the price remains excessive the bread eaters of the woTld turn to corn flour. They have done it more than once, and their doing of it has brought several wheat corners to an inglorious ending. Wheat furnishes a staff of life for man, but corn furnishes a staff of life for man and beast. * Although corn will grow in every State and territory in the Union, the recognized ,corn belt —that is, the area in which corn is produced abundantly -is limited. The great State of Maine raises cor*, for example, but in 1899 it produced only 427,428 bushels, as against 242,249,841 bushels raised in lowa. Ten of the States fall short of the 1,000,000-bushel mark; thirteen fall short of the 2,000,000-bushel mark. While twenty-seven of them exceed the 10,000,000-bushel mark, some of them rising to nearly 100,000,000, only six of them pass the latter figure and only four produce beyond 200,000,000 bushels. The six great corn-producing States of the country, with their production in bushels and the farm values of the same for 1899, are as follows: States— Bushels. Value. Indiana 141,852,594 a35.300.ax) Illinois 247,150.332 64,259,0*8 Missouri 162,915,064 46,874,519 Kansas .2157,621.222 69.405,306 Nebraska 224.373,2535 51.605,852 lowa 242,249,841 55,717,463 Total value for the six States. .>318,162,426 The same States produced in 1900 1,278,238,072 bushels of com, valued at ,$391,042,085. The total value of all the com produced in the United States for 1899 was $029,210,110, and for 1900 $751,220,034, so that the six great States of the corn belt named above produced in both years more than all the other States combined. And it is in these States that the effect of the drought has been most severely felt. It is reported that the Kansas crop is practically a failure, but this is doubtless an exaggeration. The loss in Missouri has been put at from 50 to 75 per cent. In Illinois it is thought the crop will show a loss of from 25 to 40 per cent. The same estimate has been applied to the other States in the group. If these estimates be cut down so that the average loss by reason of the, drought will appear to lie 25 per cent, which is a very conservative figure, the money loss in the six States reaches the enormous total of $80,000,000. A good rainfall a week ago would have saved all this. A good rainfall now would save fully as great a loss in the States named. This saving would not be to great firms or colorations, but to individual farmers, whose ail is involved in the outcome of the drought. Every day of the drought means the loss of millions to these people. Every inch of rain that falls means a saving of millions. It will be seen that, as a matter of dollars and cents, the farmers of the com belt have reason for the emotion they are exhibiting when the clouds exhibit signs of gathering or breaking above their withering com fields.— Chicago Inter Ocean. Cubans want better safeguards in coining election.