Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1920-02-02
HIGH PRICED LAND

yarn to Aenelrby weaver and had It !
woven into flannel from which, much
LOT both men, women and. chtldren's
clothing was made. And most Of the
/ wonder how many of our preSentl
day farmer girls would wea one Of
those old fashioned home . spun
homemade dresses.
AS I said before. there were no
stock yards, no much denounced
packers what live stock there vas,
and there wasn't very much. was
that could be done only ia tho Swin-
ter season. The farmer sailed OF
Ipickled much Of the meat and in the
spring dried or smoked the hams,
bacon, and shoulders and traded
them to the storekeepers for the me-
cessitfes that the farmer had to buy.
and I have bought or traded for tons
the magnificent price Of from six to
ten cents per pound.
And other farm products were at
correspondingly low prices, butter
from i've to sixteen emit per pound;
eggs from Ave totem cents per dozen;
dressed hogs three to fve cents per
pound: and beef about the same
bushel: wheat eighty cents t. one
dollar per bushel; but It cost two or
three times as much to produce q
'bushel Of wheat in those days Is in
recent years.
'The Cheap Days"
Those were the cheap days; that is,
what the farmer had to sell was
cheap, but not so with the necessities
had to buy. Among the thinss he
products for were all goods made
from cotton such as Bingham. calico
and light goods were as high or high
er han at present. Sugar. tea, coffee,
kerosene, nails. and hardware were
as high or higher than the present
wartime prices, and very much high
err than the prices we paid for those
War. / almost forgot to say that
among h cheap things in those
!good old days was whiskey. Whiskey
was cheap, for ten cents W. the
bar, you could get enough for a COM
Portable jag. For twenty-five cents
at wholesale price you could buy
enough to make a threshing crew
Maybe that is why some people say
) Those good old days when we were
young"
, "Big Business a Help. .
II there is one thing that has
helped to increase the price Of land
moro than others, it has been the
great increased production Of live
! stock and better live stock on the
farm. and that has been made posd-
, BILE by the packer. BY the efficient
| and economic Strengthening of the
!, stock, the great saving of what used
!, to be wasted there Is no part of the
, animal slaughtered in a modern
; packing plant that goes to waste, and
the farmers and consumers have
: > shared in his great saving. The old
: skinny COW that was almost WORTH
!; lkss, not so long ago, the packer by
: choking and removing from the
bones the little meat there is, making
the bones into bone meal and the
e blood into blood meal, the stomach
. into high priced food, her tail into
I soup-in fact, converting her horns,
= hoofs and all parts Of her old carcass
into something valuable, has made
the old COW bring the farmer more
money in recent years than a first
class milking COW would bring a few
years ago. The packer has furnish
ed to. the farmer or stock raiser, an
Observation-Disclosures market for his
stock. There is no day too hot OF
too cold but what there Is a market
and cash value for the farm pro-
Fducts- His. cold storage refrigerator
car and ships have made it possible
to distribute perfshable farm pro-
ducts cheaply apd quickly from the
farm to the consumers all over the
world. And the farmer has shared in
the profits of his enterprise.
And there is the big modern mill
with it's efficient and labor saving
devices, its modern cleaning machin-
cry. making it possible for them to
take the poor and smutty wheat,
clean. wash n scour it and convert
it into good flour that sells at top
prices.
In our boyhood days all these
things were impossible, and at pres
ent small flour mills are now pro-
hibitive because they cannot afford
to have the necessary machinery to
compete with the larger mills. and
the little old-fashioned mills are in
the discard with the hand sickle and
the fail. This has helped to ad-
vance the price Of wheat and also
the price of land.
Elevator q Factor.
The modern elevator is also a fac.
tor. Think Of those old days, not SC
long ago. when we put Jul grain into
sacks and by brute strength loaded
and unloaded it, to sell it. And the
great saving to buyer and seller by
the modern way Of handling it. And
I don't think the present elevator
man q az good a chance to steal II
as%the little fellow had in those old
days. The railroads have also helped
greatly with their heavier rails. larE.
er cars, larger and powerful
and fuel saving engines, and have
made It possible to haul grain and
other farm products to market much
more cheaply than in tho past.
The first years that I raised crops
of grain in North Dakota it cost ms
and others twenty-seven cents pc,
hundred to transport our grain tc
Minneapolis. Before q government,
took charge of the railroads it cos,
twelve cents per hundred to get gu,
grain to Duluth or Minneapolis.
Don't agree with me that Athis hal
helped to advance the value Of farm
lands? 1 know it has added many
dollars to my bank account Thi.
saving alone has added $40 to SIX
per acre to our land here.
The; cream separator the larst
~cenxralised creameries or butter fac,
tories competing with the farmers
co-operative creameries are in tn,
game hoosttnE the price Of farm
Hands.
The zlo has also dons its part, IL