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The Lean Years? Actually the biggest grain gambler of all was the U.S. Government. The U.S. had been able to make such huge shipments to Europe because of the enormous carryover from previous years' bumper crops. But the emergency shipments have all but exhausted that carryover. From now on, the U.S. will have to depend on its current crops. The Government was gambling that the 1948 wheat crop would be1 as big as the bumper yields of the last seven fat years. But last week the sharp-eyed, hoarse-voiced grain traders were betting that the Government was wrong. This again nudged up prices.
In the wheat heartland of western Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma, the planting of winter wheat (normally about 75% of the wheat crop) was anywhere from three to si:: weeks late. The reason: drought. Last week, as a high wind blew, a dust haze filled the air in Kansas, and little sand dunes began to pile, around the fences. Good rains could still change the picture, but they had to come soon.