The Bon Homme County independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1904-1913, 1907-11-28
Art CT acaop KILLING
peruIah 4" Concerns which Emplos
Men for = his P4rpo4e.

lbllsled business and cling
oncerns maintain such experts In
10 field. There are times when chis
fling ST crops is the life Of a commod-
~ market. That was so this year. In
he first place the stock market had
ne to pieces and the rank and file
t SPECTATORS hardly knew which way
D turn. They did not care either to
ny or to sell stocks. There Is a prev
lert belief that the public" has got
} speculate In something. Wheat had
cen dead for two years. Cotton held
Jrth no interest to the public on &C
ant Of the big crop last year, and
he agitation against the New York
9ottnn Exchange. .
Strange as II may seem, the "out-
ider' never cares to speculate In q
commodity on the theory Of a big de-
nand. A big consumption presents toe
rany economic aspects for him to
;rasp. XIII off the crop and give him
1 small supply, and he understands the
situation In a %twinkllng. Whereas he
inds the talk about enormous consump'
ion too prosalc to be interesting, he
bricks up his ears like a fidgety horse
t he hears talk of crop damage. II
a like a sensational murder or a big
Dire. The sensation titillates his imag'
inatiOn and he at once sees great posi-
oIlities. Hence the demand for crop
killers.
Just when stock speculation was
g" sping for breath last March a tiny
Insect appeared in the wheat fields OF
Texas and Oklahoma. 1t fell upon
those broad acres Of waving green and
proceeded to eat everything In sight
The rural entomologists called him the
"green bug and pretty soon the gov
eminent scientists came along and re
christened him the aphis. The insects
swept northward into Kansas, while
some got into, Nebraska and the Mis-
sissippi Valley States. Then 1t got dry
in Kansas and reports Of cold and I'M
~seasonable weather reached the mar
kets from the spring wheat belt In
northern Nebraska, Minnesota, the Da'
kotas and the Canadian Northwest.
There was no particular outcry unit
wheat shot up on May 10. when the
bureau Of statistics placed the condi,
ton Of winter wheat at 500. With the
rise in price all the experts got busy
T. : government CO dition figures were
Ave points tvo high; the chief damage
had been done since they were made
up on May 4; winter wheat might be
In bad shape, but just think of the
state of spring wheat! Every time the
market rose a cent the crop was cut
Town 100000 Bushels.
Nearly every large firm that Is afili'
ited with the Chicago Board of Trade
Aas its special crop killers. They are
given the courtesy title of experts
Some Of these men are members Of the
drms they represent. More often they
have regulations Of their own, made in
previous campaigns, and hired at enor
mC1s salaries by the season. They are
free lances that enlist under the fas
that pays the best salary. The besl
known Of the experts has a large fol
lowing and his estimates often receive
se",ous considerat VI from men who
ought to know bett :. Two experts EN-
plOyed by a New York brokerage house
and a group of northwestern specula
tors got out a report that sent whea
up about three cents a bushel. The
elder Of the two experts Is a veteran
crop killer. A few years ago Johr
Uudahy sent him out to Investigate
crop conditions" Cudahy was long
a huge line Of wheat. The expert
KILLED" the crop successfully and his
employer unloaded Mt a handsome
profit. =
An artistic job Of crop-killlng was
pulled off three years ago, during the
so-called "black-rust scare" Tit
members of a leading Chicago broker
age concera needed a little recreation
and they decided to take a vacation
and pay expenses while they were
al tut It. Several wealthy customers
al i a crop expert we're taken along in
a private car. They toured the spring
wheat belt, saw the sights, did a little
shooting. and incidentally sent in the
most direful reports concerning the
crop. The market was nervous enough
to respond to the news, and when the
other experts came out and complacent
" verified the first reports the market
ta!rly boiled. The gay junketeers then
unloaded at a profit of about 10 cents
a bushel, sold a little short" for good
measure, then sent in such encouraging
reports that the price dropped of
enough to enable them to complete a
aeat double turn.