The National tribune., 1892-11-10

AMERICAN WHEAT IN EUROPE.

AMERICAN WHEAT IN EUROPE.
Last August Edward Atkinson read an
important paper before the British Associa-
ton for the Advancement Of Science, at
Edinburg, Scotland, which has set all the
thinking people of that country to thinking
| very seriously over the agricultural prob
,em. In that, he told them that what had
so enormously reduced the price of wheat
all over the world was not the decline in
silver, which lowered the price of wheat in
Hindustan, but the development of the
| twine-bin in the United States and the
great reduction of our railroad rates. He
took as his first proposition that the cost of
raising wheat in this country was not gov
erned so much by what we could plant, as
by what we could harvest.
The self-binder allows the harvesting of
practically any amount. Therefore, there is
simply no end to the amount of wheat we
can send to Europe. All that We now pro-
duce is raised on about 10000 square miles
of land, and we have more than 100000
square miles of territory. There are
10000 square miles in the Panhandle of
Texas. This has heretofore been regarded
as of little value for farming purposes, yet
last year there were more than 100000
bushels of wheat raised there, and there is
no telling how much it would produce if
all reduced to cultivation. Mr.. Atkinson
pointed out that the selfbinder was intro
duced in 1876, and came into general use in
1877. Our production of wheat began to
jump up at once. In 1887 it was 1854 100000
bushels; the next year it rose to 420,0OO,000
bushels; in 1880 to 498,000,000 bushels, and
last year it was 612O00,000 bushels. Self
binders are now made at the rate of 100000
a year, and every farmer or group of farmers
can have one Owing to the cheapening of
production by the selfbinder, and the great
reduction in railroad rates and ocean trans
portation, Mr.. Atkinson estimates that the
American farmer makes more money now
with wheat at 80 shillings quarter in Lon
don than he did in 1870, when wheat was
52 shillings quarter in London.
In the same vein was the address of Herr
Naschauer, the President Of the Vienna
Grain Exchange, at the great annual grain
fair held in Vienna last August Herr Mas
chauer told the grain men of Central Europe
that competition with America was every
day becoming more hopeless. Wheat was
being carried from ST. Louis to London
1900 miles by rail and $500 miles by water
for from shillings to 2 shillings and a
sixpence from so to GO cents) per 100 klo-
grammes geo pounds) The amount
that could be produced in America seemed
endless. In 1890 we had 100000
acres in wheat, and last year 10000, 900.
The only limit was what we could sell
abroad. And we were not combining
ourselves to wheat. We were already
sending immense quantities of maize
abroad; the expectation Of rye had reached
considerable proportions, and we were be-
ginning to ship barley. The only hope for
European farmers was In protective tariffs,
and in the construction of canals which
would compete with. the American railroads
as cheap carriers.
These two addresses are being earnestly
discussed by the leading papers in Europe,
but there seems little hope of explaining
away their startling conclusions.