THE HARVEST IN AMERICA.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 3017, 14 November 1891, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE HARVEST IN AMERICA.

Tiik Now York Herald thus discourses upon tho abundant harvest in the States • —Big crops malw :i jolly nation, Wo have that kind of drops this year, anil there is 110 rea*on why wo shouldn't be as happy as a boy nt the circus.

Tho farmers of Anx-vira are on top for once. There are about four millions of thein, counting small and large, and they all have their thumbs in tlio annholes of thoir waistcoats, their straw hats 011 the back of their heads and a gorgeous smile on thoir lips.

Tlicy have had a hard tiir.o of it during the last decade. The rains came at the wrong time, not in refreshing showers, but in drowning floods ; the sun-hine was in ill-temper, and when it condescended to pay them a visit it made the \vheit and corn fiells as dry as popcorn ; hurricanes and cyclones and blizzards and locusts and potato conspired to make things mighty disagreeable, and tho poor old farmer had to make his clothes last by means of patches aud to mortgage all his worldly possessions in order to get a little ready money.

But just now all creation seems to admire his pluck and is bound to give him a barnful as a reward for patience. The reports from tho West are very exhilarating. Wo haven't hud such bountiful crops for years. Wheat, corn and rye havo done their level best, Tho prospect is that wo shall have score* of millions of bushels more than last season. Tlio tillers of tho soil arc in a high jinks condition of mind because the intorcst on that old debt will be paid and possibly tho heavy mortgage with its ten per cent, uaay be lifted. The railroad managers have joined in tho cotillion imd are flying over tho floor on light fantastic too becauso thoro aro ducats for them too. These cropß must be moved to the seaboard, and transportation is the slice et tho cake which the shareholders will consume. Then there will bo a boom in tho stock and bond market, and we may soon expect to JiL-ar tlmt the "bulls" have ground their horns to a spear point, and thut the "bears" havo gouu up a tree to sulk for a while. An old fellow said lio never wore but ono spur in riding, for ha had noticed that when the "nigh" side of his horso galloped tho " off " side followed suit. So when the farmer laughs we all eujoy the jol.o aud get our share of the fun. Like Atlas, ho holds the world on his shoulders, and when he reels and groans under the burden of illluck every man in tho community begins to feel that, ho may slip oft'.

We don't rejoice that Europe wants wheat just when wo have plenty of it. Her crops htivo tremendously failed and alio is in ft bid fix, Russia may have thought it was about timo to indulge in a war, but those arid fieldn in A.-ia which yield nothing' will make her hesitate. Germany and Austria have supplied their table* with bread made from Rusxiun rye, but they will have to leain to eat loaves of wheat, and the raw material can be had th is year from the farmers of America only. So the latter look forward to a profitable sale of their product instead of burning their corn for fuel.

We notice that tlio republicans are trying to nive the impression that they alone are r"sponsible for our larirc crops, ami McKiuluy is quite sure that this irreat beneficence flows from his Jiiyh tariff bill. All that is natural. It is quite proper for political parties to claim everything — Providence aiul all—and keep what they can. Neither of them is over modest in ivyirdiug itself as the origin of all that is virtuous and desirable, and each is

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