The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1894-03-16

tors who believe that those good old
days whom 81 a bushel was the rule
wall never &C me again, a-d that sew
enty-five cent, may bs 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 figure OF to-day.
They have ran sacked 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 MAJ ket, and on the
theory that Europe will be supplied
from the fie d5 that skirt the Paltic,
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
bunyancy, offers no promise OF an early
return to prosperous prices.
1t is conceded by all spectators, as
well as by those whose interests are
greater than margin profits or losses,
that wheat declined during the panic
through sympathy with other stocks
and comm. dities. II 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-
ton, after other st ,cks 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 le g in 1893
than for any year since 1885, and yet
the farm price, % cents, was far below
that of previous years. IL Is undeni-
ably act 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
measure for the present low quota
ii nS.
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 81, lS9, 246
and the yield to 357, IL, 900 bushels,
but {. farm prices reached III cents.
From that time back to 1880 the acre.
age never fel below 80, 1913, 319, and the
lowest yield was $50, 2S0,0 bushels.
The farm price ranged from 64.5 cents
in 1884 to 1903 in 1881. Only twice
since 1880 has the Unit d States crop
fallen below the fgu es of 1893, and
that was in 1885, when the farm price
was Ill cents, and in 1881, when the
yield wa, 80, $50, 900, and the price at
the farm ll0.3.
In 1887, with visible supply of 61,-
$4,000, the high and low price record
was 74s. 7S4, and the Herald reasons
that the present phenomenally low
frees 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
2},000.C00 bushels raised in Michi-
gan, only 900 200 have been brought
to market. These figures may not
be correct, but the impression is
general that farmers are housing
a gre iter 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
agree that better times are ahead,
and that the effect of these low prices
is, by no means, as disastrous as might
be supposed.