Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1906-05-19
THE PROBLEM
OF MACARONI
LARGE ACREAGE HAS BEEN
SOWfJ THIS YEAR.
If Other Macaroni Gro wing Coun tries
Have a Failure, it will Command
Good Price, but III France and
Africa Raise A Good Crop Some
thing Will Drop.


ton this year is the problem of the
durum or macaroni wheat. No one
knows how much of it has been sown.
There are no official figures yet cover
ing any northwest crops, but private
advices show that the farmers, en-
couraged by large yields and high
prices last season. have turned to-
wards durum in increasing numbers
and Minnesota and the Dakotas are
spotted with it. Some investigators
think there is three times as much as
last year. The most conservative
calculate that Is per cent of the total
wheat area is in macaroni, and more
make it % per cent. If it be the case
that of the acreage 20 per cent is mar
caroni, then, even with total crop
of 200, 100000 bushels in the northwest,
the spring wheat would be less in
quantity than in many an ordinary
year, for the fifth part in macaroni
could be trusted to turn out 10000, 900
bushels, leaving 16o,000,ooo bushels
spring wheat.
There is a steadily growing market
for this wheat in our country, and in
time, no doubt, home requirements
will readily absorb crop of 10000, 900
bushels or more. But home consump-
ton as yet very small and the ratio of
increase, relative to the ratio of in
crease in production, is even smaller.
the country is using a little more
macaroni wheat every year, but it is
increasing the production prodigious-
ly.
If, as now seems likely, the north
west produced 10000, 900 bushels of
macaroni wheat, it will have to sell it
abroad. In The Journal appears an
article, written Eby Rolin E Smith,
from Marseilles, gives hisimpressions.
Mr.. Smith gives figures covering pro-
duction competing countries and re-
lative prices. It amounts to this in a
nutshell, that if Russia, north Africa
and other producing countries fail in
their crops, as they did last year, the
American farmers will again profit
handsomely. If these countries pro-
duce heavily and the American crop
comes ont in proportions suggested by
acreage believed to have been put in,
something will give way. The price
will suffer.
AS it is a good rule not to cross
bridges until one comes to them, and
as the Minneapolis effect of this will
not be seen until next autumn and
numerous possibilities intervene, the
grain trade need scarcely worry.
Never the less, this macaroni problem
is the all important one. The elevat-
ors cannot buy it and hedge it as
readily as they can the spring wheat,
and this will be a consideration with
them in handling it.
Speculatively there would appear to
be slightly bullish significance to this,
since there will naturally be less con-
tract spring wheat for delivery in pro :
portion to the inroads into the acre
age made by the macaroni. In the
commercial way it will be bearish, for
if macaroni is cheap, millers will use
it to, the greatest possible extent,
turning away from higher priced
spring wheat. The millers can use a
small portion of it at times.
Another interesting consideration
is the controversy sure to arise, if the
thing works out as predicted and
prices of macaroni fall. This would
be fine for the critics of the govern
ment. Hostility to the introduction
of macaroni wheat in the northwest
found leadership in two places in
Minneapolis and many criticisms have
already appeared. These commenta-
tors will indeed have something to
say next fall if prices go down and
the farmers are left with a load to
carry.
IaTt would seem as if something
more of practical experience is neces-
sary before macaroni wheat finds its
place. IF it be true that the farmers
have overdone the matter, they will
have to suffer, and it is doubtful if the
government can be blamed. Durum
wheat was introduced principally be-
cause of it's drought resisting qualities
The government did not advise the
farmers to SOW it broadcast, but
dwelt rather upon it's availability for
lands farther west, where the rain
fall is insufficient, where spring wheat
is an uncertain crop, and macaroni
wheat not only safer, but likely to
yield heavier. The basic purpose of
the government appears to have
been so laudable that minor disadvan-
tages are relatively unimportant.
The fact that certain lands, not safe