Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1880-02-14
FARM TOPICS.
THE TINE TO SELL PRoDu cE.


realize the highest possible price for it.
1t is straightforward work to raise n
crop and prepare it for market; but to
decide upon the exact time 10 sell it and
the price ii 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 il on its arrival. If a
farmer harvests crop, he feels that he
should receive the highest market price
for IL, and so, when he has prepared it
for market, he is sometimes undecided
whether to sell il at once or hold 1t in
hopes of a rise in the price. 1t is i'm
possible to give any rule by which a
person can decide the time 10 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
$3.50 for large crop of wheat. He was
thought by his neighbors TO have been
very fortunate; but ii proved the re-
verse, tor 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
ludge whether there is likely to he a
scarcity or a surplus in any product
we NAV have to sell. If we find, from
these reports. that in a great many parts
of the country certain crop is unusual
" poor, il is reasonable to Judge that
the demand for that product will inn
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
probable rise in price, in holding farm
produce. In nj. 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 he taken nto'account.
Doubtless the best time to sell produce.
in the long run, is as soon after it is
ready for market as we can receive a
fair, remunerative price for it, unless
for some good reason there is Il reason
able prospect of Il better market in the
future.-G. 4. got, Jr., IN Rural New
Yorker.
THE WHEAT CROP IN THE COTTON BELT.
Ii may be safely assumed that the
wheat crop of ali that portion of the
cotton belt south Of latitude 81 degrees,
and east of the Mississippi River, and
embracing Mississippi, Alabama,
Georgia, Florida and South Carolina,
furnishes scarcely more than one-tenth
of the -four consumed by its people.
And since the experience OF centuries in
Europe has shown that wheat Of the
best quality can be grown in lower lati-
tades as well as where the average sum-
mer temperature is several degrees
higher, there is little reason TO doubt
that the cultivation of this cereal may
be proiitably extended-perhaps 10 the
shores of the Gulf of Mexico. Ii is evil
dent, too, that the worlds demand for
wheat is increasing at a rapid rate, and
though for the present the increased
acreage of new land may keep prices AZ
moderate figures, the time is sure TO
come when the demand will be in ex-
cess Of the supply, and prices will adj
vance accordingly. Again. in spite of
the conflicting accounts, the condition
of the South and the negro is improv-
ing, the exodus fever is gradually sub
siding, and much better feeling exists
l.,.,..an,, tkn .,rn ,.nnns Az the cnndi !