Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1894-03-01
CHEAP WHEAT.

Since cheap wheat means cheap
flour and cheap bread--two things
in which everybody is virtually in
terested-our regrets for the present
fiabby condition of the wheat market
should be tempered by the recollec~
ton Of those sweet uses of the wheat
growers adversely. And while no
one can withhold sympathy from the
farmer whois forced to sell his wheat
at less than it cost him to grow it.,
yet in the long run the present un-
favorable conditions must right
themselves. That is one beauty Of
unrestricted trade in any article
When overeprod action has weakened
the price, the low price checks pro-
duction, and with decreased produc-
ton the price soon rallies.
In the case Of wheat, so many con-
disions enter into the problem that
only those who have become con-
firmed IN the statistical habit will
undertake to say when or to what
extent the rally will take piece.
La the first place wheat is not
low as it looks. Its 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
bushel was considered the minimum
price at which wheat could be pro-
fitably raised.
But there has been some decline
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 mas been doing.
Wheat has always been the fayorite
crop for new country whose ellis
mate was adapted to it. Our Wes-
tern prairie lands invited its pro.
duction on a big scale, and exclusive
ly, without any attempt at careful
cultivation or at d,versifcation of
crops. We have increased our acre>
age without doing much to impros e
the yield per acre. Production has
Increased more rapidly than cons
sumption. Il 1S40 we produced
about five bushels of wheat per head
of population. In 1891 we produced
nearly ten bushels to each inhabi~
tant. In t~enty years we heve about
doubled the acreage devoted to wheat.
We are exporting at rate that has
averaged for the past three years
about 17O,OO0,O0O bushels. Even
that export movement has not been
sufficient to take up the surplus
product. Year by year the supply
stored in elevators and warehouses;
the visible supply-has steadily in
creased, until at this time it is larger
, than ever before in our history, reach
ing the total since January l oi
, over SO,OOO,Oo0 bushels.
While we have been producing
J wheat 10 this fashion, other coun.
, tries have not been idle. India ha'
, not much increased its production
, but improved transportation facili
, ties have brought to the Eeropear
market at little cost a surplus thai
was formerly not felt in competition
with other wheat. Russia likewis
: has been improving its routes t.
, market, besides increasing its acreag
, and yield. France is raising abou
l the same amount it has raised annu
: ally for years. India seems littl
3 disposed to further increase its pro
! duction, but Russia's yield is grow
2 ing. Australia is raising more an,
= more. Chill, Argentine Republi
? ank other South American countrie
: have barely begun to show thei
j possibilities IN their direction, bu
/ are sending increasing quantities o
t grain to dispute our supremacy
? the Luropeon markets, The resul
: was inevitable. The price lad to com
Y down, with every wheat~growin
. country in the world that had an ez
e portable surplus pouring the bulk G
!, it upon English decks.
!. Curtailment of production is sur