The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-06-17
ON THE SLIDE
Price To-day Touched $1.05, the
Lowest Point Known for.
Four Years.
Grain Man Says the Price Indicates
aToo Heavy Discount Of
Future. 5&& a..

Flax sold to-day in the cash grain mar
ket at the Minneapolis Chamber Of Com
merce at S1.05 bushel--the lowest price
known here in almost four years. This
represents drop of about II cents in the
past fortnight and has revived the old talk
that flax is to go under a dollar a bushel
this year. This would be matter Of the
greatest Importance to the farmer and
to the northwest whole. Many in the
grain trade think that the decline will
be checked, as it was in January last,
when flax broke. down and threattned to
go below a dollar. w ...-s.*. ~
Every additional dip in price from now
on will mean a slice off the total income
Of the northwest from it's agricultural
output, and will mean much to- the dis
tricts where flax is raised very largely.
Thru 1900, 1901 and up to September.
1902, cash flax in Minneapolis never sold
below $1.35, and there were large sales
this period to local linseed oil mills
as high as $3.50 and $1.85, the record
price being $1.S7h, paid here by an ex-
porter on July 16, 1901. These were the
halcyon days, when the new settler, go
| ing upon wild land, broke it up and put
| it all in flax and on a fair yield per acre
realized enough on the one crop to pay
for his land There were no longtime
mortgages hanging over new farmers then.
In September, 1899, fax sold here at
| STU @90c. That was the year so much
| of the flax was late in maturing, and
while it was still in a tender stage was
heavily damaged by frosts. Flax took
on a range above the dollar mark, and
has held it ever since, and in the opinion
of many grain men, will continue to hold
it, Notwithstanding the fact that the mar
ket is now at so low a point.
| This year opened with flax around $1.20
and there was break from this point to
$1.O9. Then came the early reports of
a largely decreased acreage this season,
and a sharp advance in price followed
BY May % the local market was holding
around $1.161A, and since then the ten
dency has been downward very steadily.
1t was found that thru Minnesota and
North Dakota, especially along the Soc
road much more flax had been put in
than was originally indicated, while the
condition of the growing plants up tc
this time is pronounced by experts to be
higher than ever before seen on a CORE
spending date. There is the possibility
therefore, Of large YIELD even on an
acreage now generally admitted to be IL
per cent under last year.
FLAX is worth more than $1.05,' said
a grain man this morning. ut hurts the
commission men to have it decline sc
and discourages farmers from planting it
Nothing justifes the present low figure
except the good outlook for the crop. But
flax is a tender plant, very susceptible
to frost damage, and enough of it is late
this year to make it worth watching. We
have not got the crop yet, but the price
is down to a level based on the assump-
ton that we are going to get it all. I con.
slider the present price as discounting the
future too heavily, and while, of course
lit is all uncertain, yet I am no 90-cen1
flax man by any means. I do not think il
will go under 81, and for the farmers
sake, hope it will not