The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1880-02-21
FARM TOPICS.
THE TIME TO SELL PRODUCE.


One of the most perplexing questions
with which the farmer has to deal is,
when to sell his farm produce, so as to
realize the highest possible price for it.
1t is straightforward work to raise
crop and prepare it for market; but to
decide upon the exact time to sell it and
the price it should bring is quite another
thing. Almost any product of the farm
will bring more at some part of the year
than at any other: but that time varies
in different years, and it is not always
easy to foretell when that time will come
or to recognize it on its arrival. If a
farmer>harvests crop, he feels that he
should receive the highest market price
for it, and so, when he has prepared it
for market, he is sometimes undecided
whether to sell it at once or hold it in
hopes of a rise in the price. 1t is i'm
possible to give any rule by which q
person can decide the time to sell any
crop to the best advantage. Some
farmers are in the habit of keeping their
produce too loug, and are thereby some
times heavy losers. A case of this kind
came under my notice, of a farmer who
once received the enormous price of
80. so for large crop of wheat. He was
thought by his neighbors to have been
very fortunate; but it proved the re-
verse, for since then he has not been
willing to sell any crop of grain at a
fair, remunerative price, but always
"hangs> on" for more, sometimes for
years and almost always with
loss. Here is one of the great
est advantages farmer may re-
ceive from reading agricultural
papers. From them we learn the state
of the markets in the principal centers,
and the progress and prospects OF all
the principal farm crops in different
parts of the country, by which we may
Judge whether there is likely to be a
scarcity or surplus in any product
we may have to sell. If we find, from
these reports, that in great many parts
of the country certain crop Is unusual
ly poor, it is reasonable to judge that
the demand for that product viii i'm
prove, or if for any reason there is a
light crop of some certain product in
some foreign county, thus causing a
great foreign demand, we can also
hope, with reason, for higher prices for
that particular article. But there" are
other things to be considered besides "a
probable rise in price, in holding farm
produce. In all the products of the
farm, there is, of necessity,a constant
waste. Loss of weight from shrinkage,
damage from rats and mice, insurance
and interest on the money that it would
bring, should all be taken into account
Doubtless the best time to sell produce.
in. the long run, is as soon after 1T ]:
ready for market as we can receive
fair, remunerative price for it, unless
for some good reason there is a reason
able prospect of better market in the
future.-G. d. Gof, Jr., in Rnras Neu
Yorker. es-i 80 sBi d,.gnf p
THE WHEAT CROP In THE COTTON BELT
1t may be safely assumed that TIN
wheat crop of all that portion of tn
cotton belt south of latitude 81 degrees
and east of the Mississippi Riser, ant
embracing Mississippi, Alabama
Georgia. Florida and South Carolina
furnishes scarcely moro than one-tent
, of the flour consumed by its people
And since the experience OF centuries \
Europe has shown that wheat OF tn
! best quality can be grown in lower lat
tudes as well as where the average sum
mer temperature is several degree
higher, there is little reason to douE
I that the cultivation of this cereal ma
: be profitably extended-perhaps to tn
shores of the Gulf of Mexico. II is ev
$ dent, too, that the worlds demand fe
: wheat is increasing at rapid rate, an
I though for the present the increase
acreage Of new land may keep prices
moderate figures, the time is sure
2 come when the demand win be in e.
\ cess of the supply, and prices will az
e vance accordingly. Again. IN spite.
J. the conflicting accounts, the condItlo
!. of the South and the negro is impro'
: ing, the exodus fever is gradually sui
q siding, and much better feeling exis
between the two races. AS the icond
ton of races and nations improve, the
: change their food rations for the bette
!. This fact is very clearly demonstrate
= in the enlarged demand for Northel
= products, especially wheat-hour, in Il
a Gulf States, and the gradual abandon
:, , ment of corn-bread for ,i'whea
u bread by all classes ROT the po
g ulation. This assertion, no dout
y will be more or less vehehlently deni'
}. by many unthinking persons; but
!. venture the prediction that in less TIL
81 10 years corn-bread viii have as near
e. disappeared from the, tables Of whit
4 and blacks in the Gulf States as it b
= already from those of the well-to1
n farming classes of .Pennsylvania al
Ohio. Already the blacks are as go'
y customers for the best brands of flour
r, the whites, and the average sales OF 3
ID different grades in lots Of 100 barre
t. are about 10 of the Best patent proce'
is 60 of high grades, and 50 Of low-pric
Il. and medium. From this it is eyide
Id that the consumption of flour in the G.
n. States, already large, is likely to
L. q faxIr