Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1894-03-15

tors who believe that those good old
DAYS when 81 bushel was the rule
will never come again, and that sew
enty-five cents may be looked to as the
future top-notch quotation. These
men are by no means bears, for they
cOncede that wheat cannot hover long
around the depressing figures OF to-day:
They have ransacked the statistics OF
the world, and claim to have discovered
that the cheap product Of Russia, India
and the Southern hemisphere, which
has lately turned an almost mex
haustible supply into the markets OF
Europe, will finally drive the American
crop out. Exposed to that fatal COM
petition, they argue that wheat rails
ing will some day become an American
question, to be treated without refer
ence to the export market, and on the
theory that Europe will be supplied
from the feds that skirt the Baltic,
from the rich plains OF India and from
South America. 1t may be said that
this gloomy view is not shared by the
professional bull, who, with all his
buoyancy, offers no promise of an early
return to prosperous prices.
It is conceded by all speculators, as
we'll as by those whose interests are
greater than margin profits or losses,
that wheat declined during the panic
through sympathy with other stocks
and commodities. 1t would be unrea-
sonable to expect it to stand firm and
alone in the general collapse that car
ried everything else down, but the de-
cline cannot be charged exclusively to
the panic, nor is its continued prostra-
tion, after other sticks rallied, eX-
planned by those who point to that as
the cause of prices prevailing now.
The acreage and the yield of wheat
in the United States was less in 1893
than for any year since 1885, and yet
the farm price, 50 cents, was far below
that of previous years. 1t is undeni-
ably fact that the tremendous over
production OF 1892 and 1891, which left
a larger visible supply than the coun-
try had ever known, is responsible in
a measure for the present low quota
tins.
Statistics of visible supplies, acreage,
yield and farm prices from 1886 to 1893,
inclusive, are then quoted, an analysis
of which follows:
In 1885 the acreage fell to "a, 189, 246
and the yield to 357, ,ll2,000 bushels,
but the farm prices reached III cents.
From that time back to 1880 the acre
age never fell below 30, 393, ,319, and the
lowest yield was $50, $50, 900 bushels.
The farm price ranged from 64.5 cents
in 1884 to 1l0.3 in 1881. Only twice
since 1880 has the United States crop
fallen below the figures of 1893, and
that was in 1885, when the farm price
was Ill cents, and in 1881, when the
yield was 80, 2S0, 900, and the price at
the farm 110.3.
In 1887, with visible supply of 61,-
S85, 500 the high and low price record
was 74s, 7Sa, and the Herald reasons
that the present phenomenally low
prices are not unreasonable in view Of
the glutted condition of the principal
wheat-producing sections, and that the
fact of the cereal being worth less
than the actual cost of production will
but tend to divert the present acreage
to the production OF some more profit
able crop.
1t is said as an instance, that of the
23,000.000 bushels raised in Michi-
gan, only 800, 900 have been brought
to market. These figures may not
be correct, but the impression is
general that farmers are housing
a greater reserve now, in anticipation
of higher quotations. than they have
ever held back. Mysterious arrivals
at Duluth, Minneapolis and other
heavy trading points to the north,
seem to add weight to these sus-
picions.
Board OF Trade men, however, are
agreel that better times are ahead,
and that the effect of these low prices
is. by no means, as disastrous as might
be supposed.