The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1884-11-21
THE COST OF WHEAT.
Discussion of q Subject of Vast Impor
tance to Farmers.

Discussion of q Subject of Vast Impor-
lance to Farmers.
What does it cost to raise bushel of
wheat? That is the great business ques-
ton of the day. 1t is of paramount i'm
portance to farmers all over the world,
to all who eat theirgrain, and to all whose
income or trade is dependent on the
general prosperity. What it costs to
raise wheat is one of the things we
must know in order to peer, however
dimly, into the great problem whether
these prices are indicative of perma-
nently lower level. If the world has
raised, as some statisticians claim, only
enough wheat this year to feed the
world, the low prices now being made
are but a temporary dip in the curve OF
quotations. But if, as other statistiI
clans claim, the world mas raised mora
than hundred million bushels in ex-
cess of IFS wants, and the conditions of
production and access to the markets
are such that there is a permanent state
of over-production, low prices must
continue until farmers have readjusted
their industry to newer and better con-
ditions. This must be a slow process
with the conservative farmers, loath to
change, and it is not pleasant to look for
ward to the prospects of the dependent
industries-that is, all the industries
while the change is being made.
The wheat question is big question
bigger than any one who has vet
taken hold oft. The London Econo-
mist, in ap article which we recently re-
produced, ciphers out the cost of an
acre put to wheat in England at not
less than S35. With the average return
as it is this year, only S25 an acre, the
farmers of England are losing $40 an
acre on their wheat Various estimates
have been made for this country. The
Tribune, giving the farmer the benefit
of every item in order to make the result
as little discouraging as possible, has
put the cost of an acre in wheat at S7-
Correspondents who have written Us
from the wheat districts have corrected
our figures as too low, and have esti-
mated the cost at 80 to 80. One of the
most intelligent efforts to arrive at the
facts of the case is made by the st. Paul
correspondent of Brddstreefs. Present
prices, he says, do not give the farmer
living profit on any estimate of cost
that is warranted by experience. One
of the bonanza farmers of the Red River
Valley finds that in good year his
lands produced twenty bushels to the
acre at acost of s., or 40 cents =
bushel. This is the minimum cost, for
it represents the economies of gang
plows, labor hired, housed and fed with
military system, wholesale prices for all
supplies, steam harvesting and thrash
ing. The maximum cost this corre-
spondent puts at SO an acre of fifteen
bushels, or GO cents a bushel. The
average cost lies between. The amount
the farmer is getting for his wheat, TAX
ing II cents for freight and three
cents for other charges out of the 63
cents for which his wheat is selling in
Minneapolis and st. Paul, is but 48
cents. These figures show conclusiveIy
that the farmers of the Northwest are
losing money at the present prices Of
wheat, Just as the farmers of England
are falling behind. They are receiving
no interest on their capital; not even the
actual outlay of labor and money.
Will these losses persuade the farmers
W E1iSc less Wucdt anu SOiuclHiuG ciSt
than wheat? Another correspondent of
Pradstreefs shows that in the last ten
years wheat in England has fallen con-
siderably more than oats ard barley.
and he predicts that the English farmers
will therefore raise more of these grains
hereafter than of wheat. Butcher meat
and dairy produce have risen in price
while wheat has been going down, and
farmers will replace wheat with these
more profitable products. In Minnesota
and Dakota the correspondent of Brad-
streets says that stock-raising has al
ready assumed large proportions in the
southern counties, and is rapidly gain
ing in favor. But the great rush will
be to fax. The farmer can raise about
rs much fiaxseed to the acre as wheat;
but while wheat sells for only 63 cents .
bushel for the bulk OF the crop snd7S
cents for the very best, faxseed brings
S1.17 bushel in st. Paul But all
farmers who read this MUS not rush
into the culture of fax, for it viii bo
easier tn glut the flax market than that
for wheat. The best outlet for tha
farmer is in the production of meat and
dairy products. Chicago Tribune.