Evening journal., 1909-03-15
FARM PRODUCTS
A MARVEL TO TELL
Those in the United States
Run Close to Eight Bill
lions in Value

Inc secretary or agriculture is au-
thority for the statement that the
value of the farm products of the
United states aggregates the incred-
ible and unparalleled sum OF Sits
600 ,OO0
The average man reads this state
ment and says. well, what OF it,"
1t is hard for the human mind to
grasp the meaning or such sum.
Our ideas of wealth have developed .
tremendously in the last twenty years,
but this amount is still far beyond our
comprehension. II is only by COM
parison that we can be brought TO an
appreciation OF its stupendousness. Let Z
us see what can be done TO make it I
little palmer.
Gold is the standard of measure (
ment for money in nearly all the coun- |
tries Of the earth, but there is not |
enough gold above ground in the whole |
world to pay for this years products
of the American farms. Turn out
stocks of gold in all the mints, all the !
treasures, all the banks empty all
the stockings. bring out all the boards
from every land under the sun. melt
down all the jewelry and turn il into
coin or bars, give it all to the Ameri
can farmers and there would still be
q balance due them. Impossible"
lyou say. Well, here is a face that
should clinch the other: All the gold
that has been taken from the mines
and the beds of rivers in all parts of
the world since the discovery of
America by Columbus, more than four
hundred years ago. aggregates but a
little more than 2,0O0,OO0,0O0, less
than double the value Of one years
farm products. this years farm pro-
ducts, in America, says the st. Louis
Globe Democrat.
? Every Farm a Gold Mine.
Talk about gold mines! Why, every
farm in the United States is a gold
mine There are something over s.
100000 farms in this country. and this
years product gives them an average
= income Of about $1,000. How many
: quartz gold mines viii do as much?
The total production of all the gold
= mines of the United States last year
was a measly hundred million. The
farms gave up nearly eighty times as
. much.
- But let us resume the comparison.
The sum, remember. is SITS 900 0O0
, That is more than the total wealth
of the United States in 1S50-real and
personal property. money bonds.
stocks, everything all added together
didn't equal the value OF last years
crops.
That sum is more than the entire
1 present wealth Of Belgium, Spain or
tho Netherlands.
il is one-ffth the total wealth Of
the great empire Of Russia.
1t is more than the value Of all the
real estate in the state OF New York,
including New York city. where land
| is more valuable than any other
place. on earth.
1t equals the total annual revenue
j, Of all the nations of the earth.
Il IS nine times the total capitali-
- zation of all the national banks in the
United States
Getting nearer home. it is more than
: six times the valuation Of all the tax
J able property in Missouri. real and
, personal
p It is fifteen times the valuation Of
all the taxable property in the city Of
st. Louis.
It is more than tho aggregate valua
tion of al the taxable property. real
and personal I'm the states OF Mis-
:. souri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Iowa and
: Kansas
Another Point of View.
Now perhaps you begin TO realize
: that S7,77S000.O00 is a whole lot of
; money. But these facts, impressive as
/. they are rather stun than enliven
/. the imagination. Suppose we take
3 another tack
We are all familiar with dollars.
? single dollars Of silver or paper We
= have them in our hands occasionally.
, for fleeting moments. and we count
them, perhaps. as they fleet. Suppose
we were to sit down TO count this
. S7.77S,000,000. a dollar at a time. how
long do you suppose it would take us
I Well, If one man tackled the job and
= worked twelve hours every day, in
cluding Sundays and holidays, count
Z ing a dollar a second and never stop
ping for meals, it would take him
just 490 years. BY this time, no
doubt, he would be tired. If to take
another point of view. he had COM
q menced TO count in the year that Co
:. lumbus discovered us, he would be
counting yet
! Suppose, again, we had all this
money in silver dollars and should lay
! them down in a single line, each dol
lar touching its neighbors on either
, side, how long a line would It make
q Figure it out for yourself If you like
2 that sort of thing, A silver dollar
is an inch and half in diameter. and
30 all lAtsc NolldlS would StfetCn out
to 116S9.000,0O0 inches, which is 1S4151
miles. 1t would wrap seven times
around the earth at the equator and
have enough left to finish up with a
bow knot. If VIC did the same trick
with paper dollars we could have a
} nice, green carpet nine feet wide
stretching clear around the globe.
Again, if we could take the silver
} dollars and stack them up one on tor
Of another in single column. il
} would rise TO the height of $3.50 miles
! The highest mountain in the world
; is only a little over five miles high
, or we could take these silver dol
\ lars and stack them up in columns si1
feet high and make a solid silver
fence 2O5 miles long.
: Now, just one point to illustrate the
J purchasing power of this amount OF
money. This s7,77S.OOO.OOO would buy
$4,000 home for every man of vot.
ing age in the states OF Missouri, II.
, linois aud Kansas,
! Surely the American farmer beats
y the world.
y ~ n n AnaeHNN