Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-08-05

the stock disappeared from the market.
1t would be supposed. naturally. that
the acreage this year would break all
previous records. The dearness of
seed, however. has worked. in my opin-
ion. against such a theory. Seed sold
as high as s12 bushel, or 20 cents a
pound. Then. in several states. the
weather for beans has not been favor
able. My old home is in western New
York, where the farmers who once
grew wheat have become successful
producers OF beans. One man was
driven off his bean land seven times
early this spring by rain"
why didn't he stay off after say,
the NTH timer" the interviewer asked
Now" Prof. Corbett answered. you
are trying to lure me into the Dogs of
psychology. Why doesn't a merchant
shut up shop after a great disaster?
Why do Wall street men speculate in
spite of long succession of wrong
guesses? Your question is no easier
to answer than either of mine A
wheat man sticks to wheat, corn man
to corn and a bean man to beans. The
buyer of railroad or industrial shares
never knows what is going to happen.
All that he can do is to think and
hope.
TT is the same. practically. with all
sorts of business men. But the farmer
faces more uncertainties than does any
one else. The cost of making a ton of
pig iron In normal times can be as
certained in advance. So much is fig
ured for coke. ore. labor overhead and
so on. The ablest farmer in the world,
however, cannot estimate beforehand
what II will cost him to produce a
bushel of beans or ton of hay.
Floods. dry weather. windstorms.
frosts and insects are beyond human
computation. The labor of a whole
season can be lost in an hour or over
night. Farming. in short, is the most
exciting business known to civiliza-
ton"
But the farmer looks calm and his
physical motions. would indicate that
his mind is at peace with the world"
the interviewer observed.
The result of reaction" Prof, Cor
bett answered, after years of ups and
downs. If the farmer surrendered to
defeat or permitted his nerves to mas
ter his determination the country
would perish from hunger The bean
grower in New York who was chased
on his field illustrates his class. Cour-
ageously he returned to his pillow, and
In the end planted his crop.
1t is said that Wall street operators
like excitement. If such actually is
the case they can get more real action
OF that nature on farms than they can
In brokers' offices. Studying the sky
Is just as uncertain as studying a
blackboard flled with quotations, and
more healthful to those so engaged
and more useful on the whole. If
spectators would turn to agriculture
beans especially, they could obtain all
the pleasures of the chase and at the
same time help to bring down the cost
of living.
Farms of thousand acres and sew
eral of fifteen hundred acres are pro-
ductng beans in California. The aver
age yield for the country last year was
about nine and half bushels, as COM
pared with eleven bushels in 1915 A
good crop is sixteen bushels. although
the yield occasionally goes as high as
twenty-five and even forty.
Usually a grower is through with
his beans after they have been threshed
and sacked. Much remains to be done,
however. before they are ready for the
consumer. They must be cleaned and
graded. fan blows out the sticks and
straws. and another machine removes
the split seeds and stones Discolored
beans are picked out by hand Women
usually do this work. Each bag is
graded into three sizes-large, small
and medium. Small beans bring the
highest prices. The farm value of beans
in 1900 was s151 a bushel. Before the
war the value to the grower had more
than doubled. Considered in terms of
money. the bean is no longer a plebeian,
but plutocrat,"
Copyright. 1877 by Jsmes p. Morrov-l