North Iowa times. [volume] (McGregor, Iowa) 1867-current, 1869-11-24
When to Sell Farm Products.

When to Sell Farm Products.
In nine cases out of ten, as soon as the,
are ready for the market.
The aggregate loss by holding is at leas
ten times the aggregate gain, taking tn,
experience Of any hundred farmers to
gethcr.
SOME OF THE REASONS.
Take grain. In the natural order Of
things, the supply is equal to the demand
The exceptions are when war takes from
the producing class, which, in addition tc
the waste and expense of transportatio OH
inevitably augments the demand, while
decreasing the production, and Of course
increases the price; or when failure. oil
some crop in some section places the sup,
ply below the needs of that section, and
Other and more or less remote districts are
under the necessity Of making up the de-
fccncy.
But both of these causes are exception
al. The world is slowly but surely learn
ing that the worst use that can be made
OF men is to form them into regiments
and set them to shooting at each other.
And az to the failure of the grain crop in
any section, it has almost become an
axiom that when corn or wheat is below
the average, something else that can take
the place of one or both is above, and thus
the general average, except in rare cases.
is preserved.
Then as to potatoes. They are sener-
ally less in the fall than in the spring,
but the larger price in May rarely If ever
nets as much as the smaller price of Octo>
Der. The shrinkage in six months is new
err less than twenty five per cent. under
the most favorable circumstances, and is
likely to be much greater.
Take wool. Generally the clip is
bought up in July aud August. If not
sold then, it must be held till the next
year, and although there is no shrinkage,
if properly kept, yet there is some trouble,
the interest of the money, and the posi-
bility of even less price which the posi-
bic advance in very large majority Of
partment Of the farm. 90 - :
The principle that should underlie this
department of farm operations: raise the
best. when the crop is ready for market,
if offered fair price, let it go. ..r
AS commentary on these suggestions,
the experience of two farmers, living in
the same New England town, is in point.
In the fall Of 1868, both cleaned up the
same day sixty bushels of white beans,
the product of the year. One sold his
crop ten days alterward for three and a
quarter dollars a bushel, putting one hun.
dred and nincty-fve dollars in his pocket.
The other "he!d" his crop when offered
three and quarter, he asked three and a
half-was confident that they would soon
be worth four. 10 make long story
short, he kept them till last spring, the
market all the time falling, till, failing to
sell them at any price himself, he sent
them to a commission merchant, some
time in May, for his disposal. lie sold
one barrel, in June, for two dollars a
bushel. This fall, opening one of the sew
enteen left to show to customer, who
thought he might pay dollar and half
he found them covered with green mould
rendering them utterly unstable.
The farmer has ordered them home, and
proposes to feed them to his sheep (if thew
will eat them). Confident that the trouble
of mind he has had and the loss of a,
least one hundred and fifty dollars viii
suffice to teach him this lesson-when any
crop is ready for market, if offered a fail
price, sell.-llearM and Home. q