Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1888-10-29
agricultural department.
Speculation in Food Products.


The recent advance in wheat in
Chicago was largely the result of
speculation. For one day, Sept. 29,
wheat sold at SLIGO per bushel,
higher price than it brought at New
York, Boston or Liverpool. This
fact is alone enough to show the
purely speculative character of the
advance. As all the world knows,
the price of our grain is fixed by the
foreign demand and price. Trying
to hold up prices here at higher
average than in Europe can only sue
coed for a little time. If continued
it would make Chicago the market
which all the wheat within reach
should come, and there is not money
enough among the spectators to
meet and pay for such an outpour-
ing.
The effect on this country of an
unnatural advance in prices is evil.
The necessaries of life are all made
dearer by the dearnes of food. 1t is
bad enough when this dearnesss is
wholly the result of natural cases.
Failure of crops has, SO far as we
know, never been considered a ma
tionsl blessing. Farmers want high
prices for their products, but even
they are not benefited by prices made
high BY speculation. Probably less
than one farmer in 10000 through
the country made anything by the
extreme prices to which wheat was
pushed during two or three of the
last days of September. They had
not the wheat in the Chicago eleva-
tors, where alone it was available.
A farmer drawing a load of wheat
to market could not get the price
which was being wildly bid for wheat
10 the exchanges
Suppose that the higher price for
wheat was continued several weeks
or months, so that farmers could
generally get some benefit from it,
the apparent advantage even then
will be found more than offset by
losses of the foreign market. This
was the fact a number of years ago.
Speculation kept our wheat in the
United States at a price which En-
gland would not pay, and it was this
that began the extension of wheat
growing on a large scale in India
and the building of railways for
bringing it to European markets.
Possibly this business would have
begun within few years in any
event, but Indian wheat growing on
a large scale was at first due to the
speculation that held prices of wheat
unnaturally high in this country.
In the end, as this country had
more wheat than it could consume,
we had to export, but we held it
until our own market broke as much
below the natural price as specula-
ton had raised above it. This is
the main reason why for several
years the farmers of this country
have been selling wheat at loss.
Now the crop situation here and
throughout the world warrants high
er prices for wheat than have lately
obtained. We have advised our
readers of this fact from time to
time, but for the farmers to get the
benefit of this better price it must
be left to adjust itself by the laws
of supply and demand. Our wheat
deficiency is probably larger than
that of the average of the world
We shall have wheat to export, but
it will be considerably less than u.s.
: ual, and there need be no fear that
it all will not be wanted at price:
that will pay the grower fair profits
Whenever the grower can get pay
ing price he is justified in selling
; 1t is more than most growers have
got for several years past, and be
cause wheat has been unnaturally
raised in price, is the very reason
why it is likely to be as unnaturally
d depressed.
At the same time farmers who are
not forced to sell can this year hole
wheat with better prospect of a gooC
price next May or June than has
prevailed in several years. 1t ma,
OF may not be higher than whea
e brings now, and for this reason tn,
J, bulk of farmers who need to sell t
: pay debts incurred during the sum
mer should not take the risk of hold
n ing. For them to keep wheat for
further rise is in the nature of spec
d ulation, while for one who only need
y the money to put in the bank, tn
+ value of this money in the whea
). that fills his granaries, if it decline
t. at all, is not likely to do so enoug
il to seriously injure him.-CultiUatOr.