The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1894-02-02
MAKING MALT.
Disastrous Effects the Wilson Tariff
Bill Will Have Upon Barley Raising.

The new malt house of the MankatO
Malt Co. is doing good business, and
has already contracted to deliver 3d.
00O bushels of malt. OF this, 10000
bushels goes to Richmond, Va, and
10000 bushels to LOgansport, Ind.
Large shipments are to be made to
Indianapolis and other cities. The
company is now manufacturing 25O
bushels of malt day, and has thus
far had no difficulty in finding ready
market for it's product. The compa-
ny intends to manufacture from $4,000
to 10000 hnshels of malt during the
present season. So successful has it
been that next year it will probably
double it's capacity and enlarge the
plant. This speaks well for an infant
industry in this city, which is furnish
ing a profitable market for one of the
crops that farmers can raise in this
section.
Under the present protective tariff
of forty-five cents bushel the farmers
of southern Minnesota are enabled to
compete with the Canadian farmer in
the markets of the east. In fact,
barley growing is now much more
profitable than wheat raising, as can
easily be demonstrated by the figures.
The yield Of barley per acre is, at a
low average, forty bushels to the acre,
and often goes as high as sixty bush
els. The best grades are now worth
forty cents bushel, while thirty-fve
cents is a fair average price for the
various qualities brought in. Taking
the lower figures, forty bushels at
thirty-five cents a bushel gives the
farmer fourteen dollars per acre. He
would have to raise 23s bushels of
wheat to the acre, at sixty cents a
bushel, to equal his barley crop, while
eighteen bushels of wheat is fair av-
erage in this county, and it is not
worth sixty cents. Eighteen bushels
of wheat, in order to bring fourteen
dollars, must be worth Is cents bush
ell. In other words, farmer can
make the same money raising barley
at 35 cents bushel that he can wheat
at 7S cents.
Under the proposed reductions by
the Democrats, barley at present pri-
ces could not possibly bring more than
rs cents a buShel, which would reduce
the income per acre to ten dollars.
Barley at this price would be no more
profitable than wheat at 55 cents a
bushel, and it is conceded that farm
ers cannot become enriched at the
present price of wheat.
This year the barley here is poor
and of light weight, and the prices
are CORRESPONDENCE low, but in good
years it is worth from 80 to IS cents a
bushel. Barley is now worth So cents
at Buffalo. An ad volorem duty of
thirty per cent. would amount to
about 16 cents bushel, againts
As cents under the present
Mckinley law. The Canadian
receives Is cents bushel for his bar
ley at Buffalo, and the Southern
Minnesota farmer gets So cents. Un-
der the Wilson bill the Canadian
would receive 81 cents a bushel,
which is more than the barley is
worth here today, without the added
freight to Buffalo.
The reduction in the price of barley
occasiOned by the Wilson bill must
be bourne solely by the farmers, as
the malt house cannot compete with
other malt factories and pay a greater
propOTtiOnate price than it does to-
day. So while the maltster must
close his establishment or cut the
price of barley by the di-erence in