The people's journal. (Pickens, S.C.) 1891-1903, 1897-10-21
WHEAT IN PAST YEARS.
INTERESTING FACTS AND FIGURES IN
REGARD TO THE WHEAT CROP.

| REGARD TO TIE WHEAT CROP.
The best four years Of wheat values
this country ever saw were 1880, 1881
1882 and 1883. There were single
years i'll the sixties better than either
OF these, but not SO good range for
any four successive yeats. If we take
the highest and lowest sales of wheat
on the 1st and 10Th Of each month as
| recorded in the reports of the secretary
| OF the Chicago board of trade and av-
| cmge them, the result for 1880 is
Sl.05 Sd; for 1881, 1.133.4; for 1882,
Sl.l77-S; and Tor 1888, $I.01 3-4
For 1870 the average, reduced to god
was only S33 cents, about II. cents
hclow present values, and for 1884 the
average was SO Sd cents.
The average value of wheat in Chi
cago fot the year 1861, based on the
quotations for the first and fifteenth
| days of each month, was 733 4 cents:
for 1862, 50 5-S cents; for 1868. GS Id
cents; and for 1868, So II cents.
Colo values are given, not currency
prices. 1t appears, therefore, that
throughout all Of the period of the
war less gold was required to buy n
bushcl Of wheat in Chicago than now.
The big prices for wheat are not prices
in gold. Furthermore the best prices
for wheat, even in currency, were hot
obtained until after the volume of the
war cul rcncy had been somewhat con-
tractcd and the premium on gold much
reduced.
BY 1869, with a return of good
crops at home and abroad, the gold
value OF wheat in Chica 20 was down
again below It's present prices. The
average for that year was ST 3-S cents
and for 1870, Notwithstanding a rise
IN the latter part of The year, caused
by the war between Germany and
France and smaller crop in the
United States, it was only 1894 cents.
The report of the department of agri-
culture for 1869 says:
"Ihc wheat interest is at present
suffering from one Of the periodical
seasons Of depression, which are the
Inevitable result of exclusive reliance
upon single crop
From 1870 the price rallied. The
1874 report of 'hc department of ac,i-
culture explains Why us follows:
"Ihc great Increase in the exports
OF 1874 was caused by the failures of
European wheat crops for two or
three previous years.
| The 1876 report of the department
OF agriculture says:
"Thc steady growth of our export
trade III cereals marks an important
change in the production of the civiliZ-
Ell world. For several year; there has
been growing deficiency in the bread
stuff crops of some European coun.
tries
The average gold value Of wheat in
Chicago from 1861 TO 1870 inclusive
was less than the present gold value OF
wheat there, and during tins time thcr,
mas been q very great reduction it
The cost OF producing wheat. Ii ma,
be allowed that the present price OF
wheat IS higher than can be pcrman
emily maintained. Wheat at even 5t
gold ccntS per hushcI to the farmer
now Is better than So cents in 1863
Al present prices wheat growing
would be more profitable than any
other business IN this country, and the
attraction TO ii will be very great. II
we should on the strength of these
prices greatly Increase our acreage and
output and foreign production shoul,
then swing uack &c full crops, il is in
rVltablc that there would be an over
production of wheat, with umproEilabl,
prices.