Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1884-10-15
The Wheat Question.

Sincerely your friend,
| ROBERT J. BURDETTE.
The Wheat Question.
The supremacy Of the United States as
the granary of Europe, says the Baltimore
| Sun, is no longer incontestible. So long
as the harvests in Europe failed, and there
were only Russia and the United States to
run upon to make up the enormous def
ciencies occurring for five successive years,
the demand for our wheat and other bread
stuffs was correspondingly large. But now
that the harvests abroad are once more up
very nearly to the average, and in addition
to the Russian wheat the product of India
is entering year by year more and more in
to competition with our own, it is becom-
ing obvious that we shall not often hereaf-
ter be able to dispose of our surplus grain
in foreign markets except at prices much
lower than we have teen accustomed to get.
Wheat can be grown in various parts of
India at a very small cost in consequence
VI eAO INV pllOC VI ldOOl, ouu III Is GllS
small cost at the point of production which
enables it to meet all the expenses of in
land and ocean transportation, and yet be
laid down in Liverpool at price that
brings it in competition with our own The
proof of this is in the extension of the grain
growing area of India during the past three
years. In 1882 the total export of wheat
! from India was fifteen million hundred
weights. In 1888 the quantity exported
reached twenty-five million three hundred
thousand hundred weights, and it is esti-
mated that the same proportlonate increase
will be shown by the exports of the present
year. Moreover, the soft wheat of India,
when mixed with the harder varieties of
American wheats, especially those grown
in the North west, is said by English mill
ers to make the finest quality of -four
Here, too, it is to be noted that wheat
growing in India on a large scale is new
industry, and that it is receiving great en-
couragement from the Indian government
because it not only offers a new field of la
Dor to the masses of the Indian population,
but also because wherever its cultivation
extends it secures the people from those de-
vastating famines to which India has been
subject from time immemorial. The Ca
pacity of some parts Of India for wheat
growing is only limited by the means of
transportation to seaport, and this capac-
ity will be greatly increased which the new
railroads already projected or in course Of
construction are completed. 1t is to the
interest of the British government that
preference should be given to supplies of
wheat from India and Australia, both be-
ing British dependencies because of the in
creased demand thus made for goods of
British manufacture. These are facts that,
in speculating on the future foreign de-
mand for our wheat and breadstuffs, we
have to consider. If we are to maintain
our supremacy for many years yet to come
it must be on different conditions. The
chief of these conditions are economy of
production and cheapness of inland and
water transportation. There is point,
even at the Northwest, on the great wheat
farms of Dakota, where nearly everything
is done by machinery, at which grain can
not be grown at profit. To the small
farmers-and these constitute the bulk of
the Western wheat growers cost of
raising wheat is much higher than on the
great Dakota farms, and it is by the stand
e.
that the possibility of profitable wheat cul-
ture must be judged. A week ago the
price of wheat at Kansas City was fifty
eight cents per bushel. At that price the
margin of profit, even on the best soils,
must be small. On worn or inferior soils
there would be no margin left. At Chica-
go, on Tuesday, the price was fraction
less than seventy-eight cents per bushel
cash, and contracts for delivery in October,
November and December did not exceed,
even for the latter month, eighty-two cents.
This, too, it should be remembered, is in
the face of the fact of a greatly deceased
wheat crop last year. What then is to be
done? The answer applied not only to the
Western farmers, but to those of the Mid
die States. In view of a possibly dimin-
ished demand abroad it would be advisable
to .place less dependence hereafter upon
wheat as the money crop, to enter more, as
the cotton States are now doing, into mixed
farming, to encourage dairy farming, and
to raise or fatten more cattle, which, as sta
tistics running through many years show,
have never failed to give good return pro-
] nortinnate to the care expended on them.