Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1909-12-21
MARKET CONDITIONS IN CEDAR
RAPIDS DEVELOP INTO FUNNY
COMEDY.
FARMERS PROFIT AND
LAUGH AT CITY pUPEs
Soft Corn Now Frozen Solid, Appear.
Fine and Deceive. Purchasers, But
When it Thaws Out 1t Is Worthless
and Hunsered Cow Will Leave IL In
Disgust.

SeudF hdpluS, Dec. zl-TnlS years
serious trouble with local corn has now
developed into a very funny comedy,
and even those people who never
glance at the market reports are be-
coming interested. The amusing part
of the situation is that the extreme
cold weather is just the thing to facili-
tate the working of that old scheme of
selling frozen corn for very choice
stuff, and the present season has al
ready registered score of victims.
1t has been explained several, times
that this years corn was wet, thus
making much of it unfit for milling
Inc farmers also are afraid to store it
in cribs for fear that it will freeze in
to one solid mass and thus become abb
solutely worthless. Therefore. every
farmer is trying to sell his wet corn
as fast as he can, and the result is
that most of the grain which finds
its way into the city just now is .un-
merchantable." The stuff sells, never
theless, for the demand far exceeds the
supply, and the consumers becoming
anxious take what they get While the
warm weather continued, this unmer-
..chantable corn was never misrepre-
scented, fortit, did not require a. Judge
ito: tellNthe. wet stuff from the good corn.
After the, cold weather: came; how
ever, the, sitnation- changed very much.
Buyers began to laugh at the lamenta-
ton over the corn crop, for they said
that they had been able to buy some
of the finest corn seen here in years.
And. so the case appeared to be. Even
several of. the experienced buyers
boastedaof purchasing some of this fine
corn. The wool, however, will not re-
main over the eyes of, the ignorant for
any length of time, as they will but
too soon learn their mistake. The
truth of the matter is that the wet corn
froze hard, and when this grain is
hardened by the work of Jack Frost,
it takes on a much improved appear
ance. In other words, frozen corn looks
fine and when mixed with ears of a
really good quality it greatly increases
the value of a load of the grain in
the eyes of an inexperienced buyer.
Even men who think they know corn
say that they are liable to be fooled
by this kind of grain.
Therefore, as many loads of fine
Hooking corn began coming to the city.
buyers were over-anxious to purchase
them, and the result is that grief is
coming to few gentlemen. This
frozen corn, upon thawing out, be-
Comes really worthless, and altho
before freezing it might have been used
for cattle feeding, after thawing out
even the hungriest COW will hardly eat
| it, and he who has been stung must
Immediately proceed to buy more corn.
| 1t was only about three days ago
that a load of frozen corn appeared
on the market street, and man who
might easily be taken for a judge of
the grain wanted todbuy it, saying that
it looked like "crackin' good corn" He,
however, was saved by the advice of a
went into the hands of a less careful
buyer.
Different With Oats.
Oats is the grain which comes to
the rescue this year, both for the farm
er and the consumer. The crop in this
locality, and thruout the state, has
been great one, and the grain is
such as has seldom been seen here be-
fore. The weight of oats. this year,
adds greatly to the quality of the grain,
and the cereal manufacturers will
realize big profits on this account.
Then too, oats have been cheaper COM
pared with the prices last year. The
acreage of oats this year was larger in
this locality than it had been during
recent years, and those farmers who
have raised oats consider themselves
very fortunate.