Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-02-18
AGRICULTURAL.
nArTER PREPARED SPECIALLY FOE
TIE "REcoRD -UHIoN."
Be Prepared for Short crops-Help fol
the Parmer-Prices Of Wheat
and Barley-Etc.

the Parmer-Prices Of Wheat
and Barley-Etc.
We last week gave numerous reasons why
a dry season would not affect the general
prosperity of the State at the present time,
as in the dry seasons of 1868 4, 1901. and
1861 Among these reasons are extended
cultivation in sections not so liable to be in
jured by drought-as among the foothills of
both ranges of mountains east and west of
us; the cultivation Of reclaimed ovelhswed
lands the introduction of a greater variety
of crops the more general adoption OF the
summer-fallow system of cultivation,
and the extension Of irrigation over large Sec
tions, thus rendering these sections indie
pendent of rainfall. Not Withstanding all
these considerations, it becomes the producers
all over the State to look the present situa-
toa square in the face an6 to prepare for its
worst consequences. The present high prices
OF domestic products of all kinds is owing to
the threatened dry season. Barley is quoted
in San francisco at from 81 So to 81 80 per
Genital. Oats about the same. Corn from
81 to 81 %. Rye from 81 % to 81 80 Po-
tatoes from 81 so to 81 80. Hay from sl2
{ SLIPPER ton. In fast all the products of
the farm are higher at this time than they
have been before for years. It must be re-
m mbered that all these prices are mora or
less speculative in consequence Of anticipated
dry weather and short crops the coming season.
T. Ia al Sow 70 ota that
the control of prices at the present time is
not with producers but with speculators-the
crops of last year having passed from the
hands of producers to the hands of dealers
and SPECTATORS. The producers are at this
time buyers rather than sellers, and hence in
stead of being gamers from the high prices
they are losers. As a rule farmers in this
State sell wheat and buy -four for the con-
sumption of their families. This would not
work any loss, perhaps if they bought their
-four at the same time they sold their wheat,
for then it would be mere matter of ex-
change on the same scale of value or price.
As matter of fact, however, most farmers
sell their wheat crops in the fall, when, as
rule, prices are low, and buy their e our
as wanted for use, that is, all through the sea-
son, and in this way they generally sell at low
prices and buy at high prices, at least large
portion of the -four used. It is also very fire.
luc case III TINS Otdb5 Oudb lATmeIS
sell out their barley and oats and potatoes go
close that they are compelled to purchase
before another harvest of these crops comes
around again, and almost as frequent do they
have to pay much more for heirpurchases than
they received for their sales. As matter of
fact we know that at the present time many
farmers who produced large crops of barley
the past season and sold these crops at from
81 to 81 so per GENITAL, are now buying their
seed barley and paying therefor from 81 70
to 81 50 per GENITAL, and getting barley of
poorer quality than that they sold. The
same state of facts is true with many farmers
who raised and sold CROPS of potatoes. They
sold at low, and are now buying at very high
fig Tres. As general thing farmers are specu-
laEors out of pocket on the crops they produce.
The prices generally remain low till the crops
J ave passed out of first hands, and come up
wnen they are in the hands of dealers and
spectators. In this respect farmers are
seldom prepared for short crops and high
prices. The producers are the last men TO
make money out of the fluctuations of prices
Of the crops they produce. They generally
sell off so close that a hard winter
or dry summer compels them to enter
The market buyers, instead of being
md there with balances to dispose of
at the advanced rates Farmers should al
ways calculate to carry over portion of the
crop of enc season till the next season has
advanced sufficiently to determine definitely
whether they can safely dispose of the re.
serve. Any other course is simply reckless
imprudence; an imprudence which no good
business man should be guilty of and which
very few business men in other avocations of
life are guilty Of It is this imprudence which
causes the loss OF so much stock in the State
whenever an unusually hard winter occurs or
when adry summer is experienced. As usual,
the present threatened dry season has found
TIA farmers generally unprepared in almost
every way to meet and pass through it with
out serious losses or without ruinous sacri-
fees to attempt to prevent losses. We are
already hearing of the loss of stock in differ.
ent portions of the State, and if the
cold, dry weather continues these re.
ports will come oftener and more of them.
Farmers should improve the present, not
only In endeavoring to ward off the present
loss, but in perfecting arrangements to avoid
similar danger under like circumstances in
the future. 1t is now almost a certainty that
the southern portion of the State, including
large portion of the San Joaquin valley,
will not raise enough the present season to
furnish food for the population of that Sec
ton and for the domestic animals owned
therein. Large numbers of sheep and cattle are
already being driven north in search for food,
aad more will be driven as fast as they can
get away. The northern portion of the
STATE has not at the present time suffic
food 10 support in fair condition the stock
owned in it. and unless warm aud more ia
yor able weather comes soon we shall hear the
wall Of suffering stock throughout the snorth
as we'll as in the south. Under the circum-
stances what should be done? The winter
crops are IN, but the spring crops have not
been planted, and there is time yet for doub-
ling the amount of these spring crops in
tended to be planted. It is too late now to
SOW wheat with probability that it will pro-
duce paying crop, but barley, oats,
corn, peas, beans, potatoes, onions and
stock-food may yet be planted, and
evsry available piece of land adapted to the
production of any of these spring crops,
should be cultivated and planted No good
land that will produce anything for man or
beast 81 oul be allowed to remain idle.
IL the reputation Of the State or the cornter.
acting Of the general bad effects of a partial
failure Of crops be not sufficient to induce an
extra effort, then the prospect of gain GER
tainly should. Suppose more were produced
than is needed, and suppose each farmer in
the northern half of the State finds, when the
next winter begins, that he has more hay,
more cornstslks, more barley, more corn and
more of all kinds of farm produce than he
needs to take his family, and his cattle and
sheep, hogs and horses through the coming
season, though it may prove severe one, and
that this produce, if sold, viii not paw a
profit on the production, what then? Will
there be anything lost? Certainly not; but,
on the contrary, the country viii be pre-
pared for a future hard winter or dry sum-
mer. or for prospect like the present.
Help for the Farmer.
It is claimed that the introduction of
the call system. or the system of pure
gambling, in connection with grain trausac-