Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-11-17
Union AND AMERICAN
Re y FARM AND GARDEN.


INTERNATIONAL CO. OPERATION
FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE FAR
MER. -
In a most able and excellent address de-
livered by Com. NJ. F. Maury before the
fair of the Agricultural and Mechanical As
sociation of Shelby county, at Memphis, on
the 18th of October last, the whole question
of the benefit which woL-d accrue to the
farmers of the country from an international
cooperation in collecting facts In regard to
the crops, was fully discussed. A general
system Of meteorological observations is to
be connected with the next crop reports,
and the government is requested, by Sc
ries Of resolutions, to invite all the other
nations to meet at an early day in confer
ence for the purpose Of connecting with the
plan now proposed, the system that was
devised at Brussels in 1853, for the sea /;
TO arrange details, and to provide for tele-
graphic meteorology. The Commodore in
advocacy of the resolutions says:
The farmer sows in faith. But whether
he shall reap in plenty, or CLEAN in scarce
ness, depends, as you know, upon the sea-
son.
am not fond enough TO suppose, nor do
mean to convey TO you the idea, that the
conference to which these resolutions point,
is to devise any system Of physical research
which will enable meteorologists to regulate
the seasons. But do mean TO convey the
impression to your mfnd-because the con-
Viction is strong upon my own-that if the
object of these resolutions be carried out,
the result viii be far more beneficial to you
than any which could possibly flow from
human power over the seasons
Let US illustrate this, so. that we may
make il plain as We 60: Some farmers here
present grow wheat. Let us take such an
one for illustration, and follow him from
seed time TO market; he has been up early
and late: he has worked hard; his grain is
harvested and housed; il is all ready for sale;
he wants a little money, and goes to the
town to iiiquire the price of wheat, Of the
men who want to buy. -.
Now, in doing this, he is reversing the
general order Of business at once. Usually
the buyer asks the seller the price Of his
wares. But with regard TO all Of the chief
agricultural staples, the producer knows so
little about the yield in competing States
and countries, that be is compelled to go
and ask the buyers about il, and request
them to fix the price. What would you
think of your neighbor, who, wishingto sell
horse, should 20 to the man who wants
10 buy, and ask him to fix the value and set
the price? Yet this is exactly what you do
with your cotton and grain, rice, sugar ana
tobacco, and all of your staple productions.
To relieve you from this, and put you on
ir,l -r,NrrlaNfra 70
tn yield Of the crop everywhere, is exactly
what these resolutions aim to do.
But let us follow our grain grower to
town, and see what occurs. The factor
tells him wheat is low. 'How is that?" he
asks: "The season has been unfavOrable,
and nobody in my part Of the country has
made half a crop; grain is scarce, and ought
to be high" "Ohl" the reply may be,
E'the crop in the northern States-in Ohio,
Minnesota, and other valley States-has
been very large. Corn is so cheap there
that they are using it for fuel. 1t viii be
brought down here by rail and water fast
enough, and the local scarcity viii soon be
rectiiied." ''But mine is Tennessee wheat.
1t is almost as fiinty as the maccarOni
wheat of California, and bears sea trans
portation nearly as well. | don't want to
sell it here; l want it shipped to England.
How much will you allow on it," "n |
do that" the fA.tor may reioin, ''you must
be prepared tC allow a very large margin,
for there has been a tremendous crop in the
valley of the Danube and the basin of the
Black sea, which, you know are said to be
the granaries of Europe"
Thus, YOU see, prices are regulated, not
bv the Weld in Tennessee or Minnesota,
but by the yield in all parts Of the world,
both at home and abroad, whence wheat
is sent to market to compete with that
which is sent forward from here.
But our farmer pushes his inquiries, and
learns that the factor gets his information,
as to the large crop in Europe, from esti-
mates Of the grain dealers in New Y ork aud
London, who in turn base their calculations
upon such information as they have been
able TO gather here and there.
Now ! cannot keep it too prominently
before you, that the object of these resolu-
tiohs is to give you, as well as the mer-
chant. as accurate and familiar information
as to the yield of the crop in every part of
the United States. in England, the basin of
the Black Sea, Egyp: and the Danube,
as Won have of it in your own neighbor-
hood. ....
Like mistakes, as to yield, happen with
COIn anu JbbttNNs steltAis tfNNs ASAhPI di3d
the agricultural staples of commerce. They
are of annual occurrence. How should it
be otherwise, seeing the information is so
one-sided. 1t is collected by the buyer-of
course in his own interest, for by it he sets
his prices This information ought to be
collected by the government, and be in the
interest Of truth and science, and therefore
impartial
Upon such information as they have been
able to "pick up" from the Black sea and
elsewhere il is surprising to see how ac-
curate these estimates are made and prices
fixed. Though they are often wide of the
mark, as al of YOU know to your cost-foI
1t not mfequently happens that by fall and
winter, when the crop has nearly all gone
forward and left the hands Of producers, the
discovery is made that the wheat crop, bOti
in the Upper Mississippi valley and in the
Black sea country, has fallen far short O.
the estimates. Then prices go up. Some
times the rise is as much as a dollar bush
el, and. as rule, the rise comes too late L
do any good. The middle men Us ually get Il I
benefit Of the rise, at the expense of the pro
Queer on one hand, and of the consumer
on the other.
The relation between buker and seller i
autagonistic, in so far as one wants 10 bu,
low, and the other to sell high. For tn
lack of just such a system Of cooperation
and research as l propose, it continual,
happens that the producer, who know
nothing as to the commercial wants of tb,
world FOR his staple, has to sch at price
that are based upon estimates which deal
ers, not producers, forIn as TO the extent o
the crop-not in one lard, but in all land
from which commerce draws her supplies
Did it ever occur to You TO inquire how
the data are obtained for these estimates b,