The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1879-08-08
GOOD LUCK IN WHEAT.

During the past five years the good luck
of American financial and agricultural In
terests has been remarkable. 1t is true thai
our enterprise and industry have beer
very great and have deserved sue
cess, but the forces of nature have
worked with us to make that success hardly
less than marvellous. For example, take
the wheat crop that has just been harvested
1t is almost without precedent in the acre
age under cultivation, the yield per acre
the quality of the grain and the heavinesi
of the demand and the consequent high
price. To our own industry Is due the fact
that larger area has been planted in wheat
that it has been well cultivated and econo-
mically harvested and transported. But
there our ends meet-the rest Is the gift OF
good fortune. A bad season would have
ruined our crops as the crops Of England
and France have been ruined. The grass
hoppers might have attacked them as they
did the crops of Southern Russia. War
might have laid waste our fields as in Bulga.
ria and Roumania, or floods like those along
the Danube, mi ght have washed them away.
We have escaped all these perils and have
harvested crop superabundant in quantity
and of the finest quality. But unless this
our good fortune had been supplemented by
the i'll fortune of our neighbors, the advan.
tage would not have been so great. A su-
persbundant crop would have proportion.
ally lowered the price and the income Of
the farmer would have been materially in
creased. The excess Of supply over the de.
mand would have taken all the profits out
of the crop. Our crowning streak of good
luck has been the partial failures of the
European crops and the consequent enor.
nous demand for American grain. 1t was
officially announced the other day by the
French minister that France would need
$l,O00,000 of American wheat. The Eng.
lish demand will be considerably larger
There will thus be no difficulty in disposing
of our immense surplus at high prices
bringing to the wheat growers very hand
some return on their investments of capi.
tai aud labor. This will give them some
5000, ,OO0, 900 to spend, and the merchants
will in turn get the benefit of it. 1t was
said that Good Fortune brought us these
blessings, but still they are in large part
the reward of our former labor. A consid.
erable portion of the profit lies in the mod.
ern economies in handling, Transporting and
loading the grain on the outward bound
ships. Ifit were moi for our large railroad
facilities and the competitions which keep
freights down, together with the terminal
facilities in the way of grain elevators, il
would not be possible to supply the Eu,
ropean demand for grain and the cost Of
landing it in Europe would put the price
too high for very large consumption by
putting it out of the reach of large classes oi
consumers. The elements of our good for.
tune are largely the results of our own en-
ergy, forethought and in vention. Heaven
has helped US because we first helped our.
selves.
But our wheat successes have not beer
our only strokes of good luck. The increas
ing foreign demand for American petroleum
is due chiefly to our improved appliances
for handling, transporting to the coast, anG
shipping it. 1t has thus driven out othel
illuminating.oil in many parts of Europe
and has become an enormous article of ex'
portation. Our crops of Indian corn hav,
in the same way been creating European
markets for themselves and there is still
room for vast expansion in this direction
The cotton crops for the past four year
have been far larger than the crops raiseS
by slave labor before the war, and the pri
ces considerable higher. The current cot
ton year product may prove to be the larg
est crop ever picked in this country an,
yet, owing to the large demand, the price
have kept up remarkably. 1t is this lonl
series of fortunate events which has givel
us the enormous balance Of trade in our ia
vor, which caused the premium on gold +
disappear, made resumption possible, an
the reduction of large part of the bonde
debt from six to four per cent. This is in
deed happy land.