The secretary is especially hopeful of an average corn crop. He says it will not be a record breaker or “a bumper,” in the parlance of the agricultural department, but, at this moment the prospects favor a fair average yield.
Advice to Farmers.
“If something could be done to induce the farmers in the corn belt,” said Mr. Wilson, “to extend their period of cultivation about two weeks this year beyond the usual limit, I would look for a big crop. But the usual season for cultivation is rapidly drawing to a close, and I fear that with comparatively few exceptions the farmers will ‘lay by’ their corn at the regular time, regardless of the drought. In the entire corn belt, with the exception of Missouri, which has a shallow soil, 30 inches of rain during the year is all that is needed to produce a crop. If even only 12 or 14 inches of this falls during the four months of production a good yield can be counted on.
Stir the Soil.
“The corn belt soil, with the exception noted, is deep, and holds moisture well. To utilize this conserved moisture to the best advantage in the absence of rain the soil should be continually stirred, so as to make what we call a mulch, until the crop is matured. Therefore, I repeat that if the farmers in the corn belt at this time could be shown the advisability of extending their cultivation season about two weeks we could look for a good yield this year. The farmer, like every other business man, always does what he believes to be best for his own interest, but in a case like this it is extremely difficult to disseminate broadly in farming communities the information that is of pressing and immediate value. By this I mean if we only could spread all through the corn belt the news that if the season of cultivation were extended about two weeks beyond the usual limit, there would need be no fear of the result.”
HE DISLIKES TO RETURN.
McDowell Refuses to Return to Missouri Without the Formality of Requisition.
Washington, July 23.—Sheriff Joseph F. Dickman and Detective John W. Cardell, of St. Louis, arrived here to take charge of John McDowell, who was arrested here Saturday after attempting to obtain jewelry from two local places on the pretense of being Senator Hanna’s son. McDowell, however, refused to go to St. Louis without a requisition.