Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1894-03-07
yii1irainia fret gress.
cheap Wheat.

and cheap bread-two items in which
everybody is virtually interested-our re-
greis for the present habby condition OF
the wheat market should be tempered by
The recollection of those sweet uses Of the
wheat.growers' adversely. And while no
one can withhold sympathy from the
farmer who is forced to sell his wheat at
less than it cost him to grow it, yet in
the long run the present unfavorable con-
ditions must right themselves. That is
one beauty of unrestricted trade in any
article. When overproduction has weak
ened the price, the low price checks pro-
duction, and with decreased production
the price soon rallies.
In the case of wheat, so many condi-
tons enter into the problem that only
those who have become confirmed in the
statistical habit will undertake to say
when or to what extent the rally will
take place.
In the first place wheat is not as low
as it looks. It's purchasing power has not
decreased to anything like the extent of
the decline in price. Sixty-cent wheat in
1894 will buy great many more of the
necesSaries of life than it would have
bought in the days when one dollar a
bushel was considered The minimum price
at which wheat could be proftably raised.
But there has been some dec inc in the
intrinsic value of wheat, and that we owe
to overproduction. We have steadily
increased our surplus for export without
regard to what the rest of the world has
been doing Wheat has always been the
favorile crop for new country whose
climate was adapted to it. Our Western
prairie lands invited to its production on
a big scale, and exclusively, without any
attempt at careful cultivation or at di
versifcation of crops. We have increas
ed our acreage without doing much Il
improve the yield per acre. Production
has increased more rapidly than consump
ton. In 1910 we produced about five
bushels of wheat per head Of population
In 1891 we produced nearly ten bushels
= to each inhabitant. In twenty years w
have about doubled the acreage devoted
to wheat. We are exporting at a rat
that has averaged for the past three year
about 170,000,000 bushels. Even tba
export movement has not been sutficien
to lake up the surplus product. Yea
> by year the supply stored in elevators an(
warehouses-the visible supply-ha
=. steadily increased, until at this time it Il
larger than ever before in our history
reaching the total since January l o
u u over SO,OOO,OOO bushels.
n While we have been producing whea
in this fashion, other countries have moi
been idle India has not much increased
its production, but improved Transports
ton facilities have brought 10 the Eu.
J ropean market at little cost surplus
r that was formerly not felt in competition
with other wheat. Russia likewise has
been improving its routes to market, be-
is sides increasing its acreage and yield
France is raising about the same amount
it has raised annually for years. India
seems little disposed to further increase
its production, but Russia's yield is
. growing. Australia is raising more and
sr more wheat. Chill, Argentine Republic
and other South American countries have
II barely begun to show their possibilities
in this direction, but are sending increas-
ing quantities of grain to dispute our SUI
premacy in the European markets. The
!, 5 result was inevitable The price had TO
come down, with every wbeat-growing
country in the world that had an ex-
portable surplus pouring the bulk of it
upon English docks. Inc price IN Llv-
erpool has regulated the price in this
country, and for wheat furnished to home
consumption our farmers have had to
take the price fixed by the competition Of
foreign wheat with their exported sur
plus.
Whether we can open up new markets
in Europe for our wheat sufficient to
offset the increase in production is very
doubtful. If we do, we must still sell in
competition with the wheat of other
countries American wheat ranks as the
best, but it must compete in price with
= inferior grain. Moreover, new wheat
areas are being constantly opened up in
other countries. Even Africa promises
c to become in time factor In the prob
r lem, and South Americas capacity as a
IS wheat grower has scarcely been tested
i The revolution in transportation facilities
!, has made the world practically one mar