The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-04-15
UNHEEDED WARNINGS.

In January, 1894, the Journal pub
lished and commented on a report of the
statistical bureau of the Department OF
Agriculture showing a marked decline in
the number of cattle and sheep COM
pared with the report a year earlier.
The report seemed to attract little at
tention and not much comment beyond
those newspapers which saw in the fall
ing ,off one of the results of the over
throw of protection in the previous cleo
ton. The same report showed a fall
ing off in the number of swine, and,
though prices were nigh, that report
was not accepted as a warning. The
report from the same bureau a year
later showed a falling off in the num-
Der of cattle. sheep and hogs. 1t may
be that the packers who are known as
the big four Needed these statistics.
but it was very certain that the mass
of dealers and raisers paid little atten-
ton to them. 1t was not until the large
stock purchasers in four cities satisfied
themselves that there had been a marked
decline in the number Of marketable
animals that they started prices up
ward. 1t can be said in regard to statis-
tics of cereals that about the only per-
sons who study them are the dealersa
and particularly the dealers in margins,
who do not handle real wheat and corn.
All these men watch the reports and
act upon them. Wheat advanced in the
exchanges prior to the rains of the past
two weeks, but with the improved con-
ditions for the seasons crop quotations
fell off.
Z These facts would lead to the. con-
clusion that accurate crop and stock
reports such as the Department of Agri-
culture could obtain If it were as well
organized as the national Bureau of
Labor would be of great value to the
producer and the consumer as we'll as
the middle men and trafickers in the
wheat and corn pits. If it could be re-
liably ascertained that the number of
animals which find their way year after
year to the great stock markets was
decreasing producers might reap some
of the advantage which the dealers are
likely to secure from the present adj
vance in the prices of meats. Farmers
who do not make cattle raising feature
in Indiana and other older States might
find in such information, if accurate, an
intimation that the growing of a few
more animals for the market would be
profitable. Even those who have been
sacrificing sheep because the price of
wool has fallen from 40 to so per cent.
since the advent of free wool might see
that hocks might be sustained to OBJ
tain the higher price of mutton which
would follow a decrease of millions a
year. If those farmers who insist on
seeding the same number of acres to
wheat regardless of the stock in sight
would devote part of those acres to
other crops the years when stocks in
sight were large they would be better
off. The limiting of production to the
level OF consumption is one branch of
practical economics which attracts the
attention of only a few producers. The
Southern farmer has increased his
been doubled in less than decade, and
two million more bales at least are pro-
duced than the conditions of consump-
ton demand That condition makes
cotton raising profitless.
If the Department of Agriculture could
rescue it's statistics regarding crops
from the distrust which has come to
all the facts regarding the supply and
the demand in the hands of producers
it would confer a greater benefit upon
them than it has heretofore been able
to render.