Daily Republican. [volume] ([Wilmington, Del.]) 1874-1890, 1884-08-12

The expectation is that wheat will b.
lower In price This year than 10 has been
since 1861, when in Chicago it ranged
below seventy cents bushel. Taking
the average in England of the first hall
OF the past year, 81. IL per bushel, wheat
has been lower than in any half year
since 1880, the next lowest period being
in 1851. The English newspapers are
predicting still lower prices, and judg-
ing from indications here their predic-
tons will be verified. The best the
future promises seems TO be about
seventy to seventy-fve cents a bushel.
These prices leave the farmer a very
small margin of profit if indeed it
leaves him any at all. Whenever prices
get down TO fifty and fifty-five cents a
bushel at Chicago, il becomes question
whether farmers can afford to grow
wheat.
This is question which deeply con-
Germs the wheat growers of Delaware
and other Eastern wheat growing
States. The manner in which wheat
is grown in Delaware makes it impossi-
BILE to raise wheat in competition with
the Western States where some Of the
wheat farms ere as large as some of our
Hundreds in Delaware, where the
ground is fertile and well adapted to
the raising of wheat, and where every
item of outlay labor and expense is
reduced down TO the lowest minimum.
The low price of wheat is compelling
growers to figure closely on the Cost of
raisingit
Mr.. Kendall in 1878 raised wheat at
Window, MINI, on new land at thirty
six cents bushel, twenty bushels to
the acre, and forty-eight cents bushel
delivered ia Chicago, but this was in a
year that saw ten cent reduction in
freight. The Dalrymple farm in Da
kota averaged about the same. In
Kansas and Nebraska the agricultural
reports gave the cost at about forty-five
cents a bushel, sixteen bushels to the
acre.
This year Kansas averages a little
over twenty-five bushels to the acre leav
ing the cost OF raising it about STA to
$3.50 per acre. The wheat in the bin
will cost over thirty-four cents to the
bushel.
These prices of the cost of raising Of
wheat will necessitate revolution in
the Eastern States. Something will
have to be done TO enable farmers to
compete with the low cost of raising
wheat in the west. Who would think
OF breaking up an acre Of sod ground,
cultivating it, manuring it,phosphating
it, seeding it at Two bushels to the acre,
and then harvest it, thresh it and put it
in the bin ready for the market at s.. 80
per acre
Yet this is what it costs in Kansas,
and some other Western States. Re-
lating to this subject tue Philadelphia
Press has timely article in which it,
refers TO the cost Of raising wheat in
Iowa. 1t says
The cost Of an acre of wheat in
Iowa from 1870 TO 1880 was about ST.
IA to $3.50 an acre, but as the yield aver
aged only SO bushels, bringing 81. 80 an
acre, there was lit le money on the five
years, but fair profit in 1879 and 1880,
when the return was SS.74 an acre.
This Is about the estimate reached in
the Sun in 1879, when the cost of grow
ing an acre o. wheat was placed at So.
There is probably no land in the United
States this s.he the Pacific coast on
which wheat c IN be grown at less than
~ an acre, and II costs IS on most, but
not much more in.wheaJ States. The
average yield III 1882 WAS 1876 bushels
per acre. IL is lot over II this year
On the average, ten, wheat sold by the
farmer at uude- 80 cents will De "a
loss unless IL bushels are raised, when
oO cents covers EXPENSES, or, when 70
bushels are raised, forty cents will. In
1882, much ike this year, Michigan,
Indiana, Illinois and Dakota av, ragged
10, and Minnesota, Wisconsin, Micni-
gan and Missouri under II. Iowa ran
as low as 10, and Kansas up to 20. 1t
will be seen, therefore thai in most of
the States the protlt Oh d bushel OF wheat
will be very sAa.. d, TIE price predicted,
and yet on tha. profit rests Westward
freight and a great share OF Eastern
sales of manufactures.
Evidently wheat growers in Delaware
will have to turn over a new leaf in
wheat culture if these low prices in
wheat are TO rule. They cannot cult
vate thirty, forty or fifty acres of wheat
after the practice of Delaware farming
and compete with the West. What then
remains for them 10 do? Evidently it
is to cultivate less acres, make what
they do cultivate more productive and
turn their attention to dairying and fruit
raising, the latter especially being adap-