Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1894-03-23
The Future of Wheat.

whatever light his business methods
may be viewed, is admittedly one OF the
best posted men on the subject in the
world, says:
"Wheat is dull in all the markets OF
the world. For weeks it has been drug
at prices unprecedented since specula-
ton in farm products began. 1t has
sunk below all low marks, refused to re-
spond to bullish influences and gone
begging at quotations known to be under
the actual cost OF production. Theories
that crop products, like articles OF man
uiacture, had an intrinsic value under
which they could not long be sold, have
been exploded, and wheat has continued
to fall. How long this condition of de-
pressed prices will last is a question that
interests American farmers, who devote
35, 900, 900 acres every year to cutivating
the cereal, to merchants in the land and
incidentally to spectators the world
over.
"After analyzing all the influences
that have contributed to the tumble, and
there are any number Of them, it would
appear that new level is about to be
established for wheat, beyond which it
is not likely to rise except by the boldest
manipulation, and then only for brief
periods. There are spectators who be-
lieve that those good old days when 81 a
bushel was the rule will never come
again, and that IS 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 discov-
cred that the cheapest product Of Rus
sa, India and the southern hemisphere,
which has lately turned an almost mex
haustible supply into the markets OF Eu-
rope, will finally drive the American
crop out. Exposed to that fatal compe-
tition they argue that wheat raising will
some day become an American question
to be treated without reference to the
/ export market and on the theory that
Europe will be supplied from the fields
that start from Baltic, from the rich
plains, from India and from South
America. 1t may be said that this
gloomy view is not shared by the pro-
fessional bull, who with all his buoy
oncy offers no promise of an early return
to prosperous prices.
"It is conceded by all spectators, as
we'll as by those whose interests are
greater han margin profits and losses,
that wheat declined during the panic
through sympathy with other stocks
and commodities. 1t would be unreas-
enable 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 prostr
ton after other stock rallied explained
by those who point to that as the cause
OF prices prevailing now.
81 do not believe that prices will re-
main at this low point much longer, but
it seems inevitable to me that we are al
most certain to lose large part OF the
European market that has heretofore
been open to our grain. With wheat
selling at less than the cost OF production
farmers will naturally turn their fields
to other uses. Sixty cents a bushel is
TIE accepted cost OF production east Of
the Mississippi river, aud in view OF the
prices that have prevailed for several
months it is only reasonable to look tor
a big reduction in the acreage of 1894.
9Th re is one thing that the farmers
of Washington do not seem to take into
consideration it is their isolation from
the consumer Of the surplus. This state
probably has ho equal on the face OF the
earth ior its natural fertility for wheat,
but at the same time it is farthest from
the market.
"The Argentine Republic and India
raise an immense amount OF grain for
the European market. Neither country
can produce under the same conditions
as much or as good wheat to the acre as
Washington, but at the same time they
are thorn in our side when our wheat
competes with them in the same mar
: ket.
"In the first place they lave such
cheap labor that to exist on their wages
our laborers would starye. Then the
distance is so great by thousands OF
miles that we are compelled TO use sail
ing vessels while they market their
grain in steamships, which is great
saving in proportion to the distance
= trayersed,"