St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-01-02
WHY PRICES FLUCTU ATE.
The Subject Discussed by James
Wilson in the Ohio Homestead.


Wilson in the Ohio Homestead.
The principal cause of the remarkable
fluctuations in prices of farm crops is
the unstableness of Western farming.
Settled rotations are the exception re-
garding crops, and the mass OF our
farmers perpetually turn from what
sells lowest to what sells highest.
Leaving out of this article the specialist
who is rich enough to farm as he pleaSeS
and many men who have grown up with
the country, independents OF themselves.
please to do what others who begin
farming now dare not do if they are to
thrive-we will now consider the latter,
the man who sets out to earn farm, or
make one pay interest on the market
value of his acres. He must stock it to
its capacity with animals that will turn
its crops into the best selling articles.
Horses alone will not do this; besides,
it takes more capital than the average
farmer possesses or dare borrow to con-
sumo the grasses and folders OF farm.
Hogs alone will not answer, because
they consume comparatively little grass
and no fodder and great deal OF grain.
STEERS CANNOT BE RELIED ON
bv the average farmer because he is not
always certain of getting them at prices
that Justify feeding, particularly when
fat cattle are high and spectators are
buying them up in large numbers.
Sheep are uncertain while tariffs are
uncertain, and many of the sheep of the
nation are owned by men who Craze
their tlockS on government lands, and
many are owned by men who depend
on wool for profit, and both of whom
tAf... j kst. ,rt5 fhn
sneep industry will only be safe as a
special pursuit for farmer of moderate
means when he raises them for mutton
and regards the wool as incidental. The
farmer of moderate means, and that in
cludes the many, must arrange his
crops to meet the wants of his animals,
if he keeps his acres in good heart, and
he must arrange his animals so that his
cropS will be transformed into the high
est-selling staples. Horses enough to
do farm work and raise some colts to
sell is as far as it is safe to invest in
that direction. Cows enough to give the
farm help work outdoors and indoors,
milking and caring for the milk;
cows enough to breed cattle to consume
all the grass and all the folders of every
kind and description on the farm and to
eat all the grain on the farm, except, of
course. what the hogs and horses need.
Hogs enough to be balanced by the cow
stock, TO be helped by the skinned milk
and no more; fifty, perhaps, on
quarter section farm, or less, sold at
lighter or heavier weights, as the abund-
ance of cows justifes.
CAREFUL BREEDING
to make all animals better. careful OBJ
servation so that none too many ami
mails are kept, compelling sales before
maturity. Some sheep of the mutton
breeds. not over score of ewes OH a
quarter section farm. This is an out
line. If cows are low, as they now are,
they must not be sold. The farm needs
them. A good stock of mixers
| is not easily replaced. They
Should be as permanent as the past
ure. Our farmers are coming grad
ually to this permanent system. The
average prices pay nearly always. Ii
| the average becomes very low, there is
| lothing left but to eat less, and wear
, less that is expensive and hard to get
| with farm incomes. When our farm
| ers settle down to this there will be less
of tiuctuation in prices. Something is
radically wrong when cows and heifers
| are being trooped off to Chicago at less
than cents per pound. while butter is
| selling there at 80 cents per pound.
| Something is
RADICALLY WRONG
when pound of butter buys bushel
| and half of corn. 1t is an evidence of
| distress among farmers that must be
remedied. Thirty cents per pound for
butter, 20 cents per buShel for corn, and
| most farmers idle from now until the
first of April! 1t will never do. We
must get into such position that we
| need not sell our regular stock because
some spectators in beef or mutton
| have gone all wrong, as they have lately
on the ranches. Another thing; the
farmer who is to thrive from this time
| on in Iowa and make interest on $50
! all acre land or more, must, with every
member of his family, male and female,
contribute to the production OF some
thing. The Iowa farm is demanding a
mistress as we'll as a master, and if the
ladies of the prairies decline to be seen
| experimenting the dairy, women are
| coming here. and coming fast from all
| lands, who will rejoice in it. We see
with pain the supplantng of the old
| farmers families who fail to catch
the step of the times by strangers who
| soon learn it. We are not inimat ng
that farmers wives and daughters
should work more, but that they should
| become better directors in managing
| the paying auyiliarieS of the farm.
| High farming. nice farming, profitable
| farming, can be carried on in Iowa.
There must be more independent farm
ing. The poor beginners can live al
| most from what is raised. This is one
| extreme of independent farming. The