Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1889-03-13
Our Competitors in Growing Wheat.

The product of the soil, dispensing its
invaluable blessings more widely than any
other, will for all time continue to increase
in the latitudes adapted to it's culture
Such is the interest in it, that experiments
in growing wheat will be pushed wherever
there is hope for beneficial results, till the
superior fields, gaining ascendency, control
its relations to the demand for bread-sup
plies and establish its rights of values in
trade and commerce.
Leaving India, Australia and some minor
fields cut in this reference to wbest-e1-
porting countries, We propose to view tpe
conditions and prospects of that cereai IL
two countries of surplus production thai
come into competition with our own-one
under the government of an old monarchy
emerging from the condition of its slowly
applied opportunities, and the other
young giant of the southern end OF oul
continent, springing forward from Spanish
domination and lethargy, under the appll-
ances of American push and ideas, though
European capital and men furnish the
basis of operation. Both are struggling
with the usages which never fail in any
country to be applied to agriculture wheth-
or of low or high degree in its prosperity.
Russia and the Argentine States are look
ing to the United States as an exemplai
for bridging over at least some of the diff
culties attending production, though the!
cannot at present point to our country fo'
guidance in Kidding themselves OF unwar-
ranted speculation. In one other and CHIEF
essential to prosperous agriculture, our
great Republic may yet be outstripped by
these novices, as it were, in agriculture
We burden it with sustaining the foreign
commerce of the country as well as make
it support other industries that unssemly
gains may accrue to such, and have
chastened it for honorable aspiration as il
proposes to win larger fields to the outward
trade it supports.
Whilst Russia has been gradually H.
creasipg as wheat-exporting country, its
agricultural interests generally, and the
realization upon wheat in particular, art
still at low ebb in prosperity. The gov
eminent and the commercial interests are,
however, engaged in making investigations
with the view of removing obstacles to
profitable agriculture, as they exist IL
farm management, the storage of grain
for export. and the regulation of freight
rates from the interior to the seaboard.
1t is admitted that Russian wheat in the
condition the producers, as we'll as middle
men, are in the habit of throwing it upor
the market, must not only occupy an in
ferior grade to American wheat, but also
to that of India and Australia, where
partially better methods of preparation pre-
vail. Elevators and sleeves for storage and
cleaning have not been introduced in the
interior, but latterly they are coming int
use in the southern part of the empire nes
the point of trans-shipment. The need IL
great, for large dealers are openly charged
with mixing dirt with wheat and grea'
waste follows from the fimsy materis
used for sacks and bags in the rough hand
ling they are subjected to.
Overworked land, high rates for money,
the high tariff on agricultural machinery,
and excessive freight rates are a few of tn
inconvenience and obstacles to proftabl'
whest-growing in Russia. Very grea
preference is expressed for American-mad'
agricultural machinery, and commissio
investigating all these matters generally,
make special reference to the excessiv'
tariff upon the American made machinery,
and have urged the entire abolition of it,
The recommendations for adjusting raj
road and export freightcharges point to
uniform, established price for all distances.
and not a pro rata rate according to els
tances. That is to say, wheat five hun
dred miles away from a common shippin,
point for export shall not pay any NOR
for freight charges than wheat also for ex
port though it should only be transported
fifty miles OF less by railroad. This pro
cess will make the value of wheat the sam.
whether produced within ten miles of ex-
port delivery or any distance away from it,
if that should be its destination. The
government of Russia is invoked to estab
lish a system of charges as to long aD'
short hauls the very reverse of the polio.
our Atlantic Coast farmers are fighting fOi
with all their might and main.
The producers of wheat in Russia have
but very little to do with marketing theiI
crops, or voice in the matters which regu
late the methods of the trade OF its values
The midde-men who largely control TIT
trade are inscriptions, and manage so at
TO make the producers pay ten and twelv,
per cent. for money advanced upon thei
crops; whereas if elevators and storag.
were abundant, they could easily Obtain
advances at six per cent. interest.
In every enlightened phase in which the
interest as it concerns Russia and tn,
wheat-growers of that country as viewec
there, America is pointed to as the model
in culture, if not for reforming their liue'
for commercial progress. The experts
who speak for the farming interests, ano
are really reaching standard of informa.
tion upon which good progress can be
made, cease not to dwell upon the ad-
vantages which are utilized to such per-
lection in the land whence went abroad tn
reaper, and where the elevator protect;
and secures from waste and damage tht
fruits of tire farmers toll.
We referred to the Argentine Republic
as young giant, and so it is in other de-
velopnents as well ? in its agriculture
At the same time speculation and wilt
investments, in which the government
stimulated with the influx of capital anc
population, INDUCED to hazardous extent.
may bring about financial pressure which
will set heavily for awhile upon its grsir
production. In 1882 the exports of whea'
and flour as wheat were So, l04 bushels