The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1893-07-05
Improved Machinery and Cheaper Wheat

Wheat sold on June 80 on the New York
21H cents less than the average price during
1892. and the lowest price since 1857. This
remarkable fall is of course due in the
main to the financial stringency. which
forces borrowers who are holding wheat. to
sell at any price they can get. The pressure
upon them Is heightened by the large
surplus from last years harvest. some
pinety million bushels. in face Of the new
cropabout to come In. Apart from this cause
Of depression. apart from sympathy with
the decline\in silver which has brought
down SO much else. wheat has fallen in
price during the past decade for no other
reason than that the cost Of its production
and transportation has fallen. In 1882 and
1883 the average price Of wheat in New
York was $1.2S; in 1886. SO cents: n 1887. 80
cents: in 1890. 81 cents: in 1881. when Euro
pean harvests failed. S1.Os Last years quo
tations began at $1.O51l Z. closed at 1871 cents.
and averaged 80 cents for the twelve months.
One year with another. wheat farming must
pay as well as other occupations. or it would
not be followed. What influences distinct
from those Of the money market. have been
First and chief among them have been
the railroad extensions. which have opened
up immense stretches Of new wheat lands.
especially in the Northwest. where the
length OF the summer day more than COM
pensates for the shortness of the season.
and where Scotch Fyfe. Blue Stem. and
other sterling varieties thrive as nowhere
else. The recently completed Great North
ern Railroad has brought into the market
millions Of acres OF land. offered on terms
which bring the cost of raising bushel OF
wheat to point which gives pause to the
producer in the overcropped regions OF the
Middle and Southwestern States. And new
railroads. built with steel rails of new
cheapness, are able to bring grain to market
at freights which grow steadily smaller.
while water transport on whalebacks and
other monster lake craft. completes by its
constantly lowered toll.
Next as q cause for the cheapness of
wheat must be named mechanical advance
along another line: In the improvement Of
farm machinery and In its more general
use. To-day on prairie farms. gangs OF
four ploughs are not uncommon. Shoe
drills. wider than ever. harnessed to four
horses. SOW as many as twenty-six rows of
grain at once. automatically pressing by
chain or wheel the earth around the seed In
such wise as best to favor termination. In
the West and Southwest the lister does
better work than the drill on irrigated
land. Its motion initiates that of shovel.
the machine digging shallow trough.
dropping in the seed. and covering it up
with surprising neatness. Harvesters and
self-binders have been gradually improved
until in the latest models there is no risk OF
upsetting on hillside or OF sinking in soft
or swampy soil. Machines of this pattern
are turned out Of a single factory at the rate
of one minute during every working day.
Between dawn and dusk ON Minnesota
farm a machine has cut and bound twenty
four acres OF wheat twenty fold quicker
than the farmer could do it without me-
chanical aid. the ingenuity Of the process
eliminating in the motions OF the
steel finger, which ties the knot in the
Irvine OF each sheaf moro simply than
the human hand can do 1t. Within ten
years, steel has been gradually replacing
wood in farm machinery; to-day. save in its
shafts and revolving arms. the harvester and
self-binder is OF steel throughout But here.
as elsewhere. the inventor finds 1t to his adj
vantage to revise his practice by experience
afield; in mowers. the vibrating pitman.
when made of hickory, outlasts dozen
made of steel. With this one paradox to
puzzle over. the manufacturer finds his ma
chimes at all points bettered in design by the