Evening star., 1923-09-07
CAPITAL KEYNOTES
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS

imports s21,711,595 worth of cotton
cloth. England sends us nearly $14,-
900, 900 of it. Part but far from all, the
| cloth is woven of American cotton.
**
Amongst expected results of current
events may be considerable rise in the
cost of silk. for four -fifths of our supply
came from Japan. In the earthquake at
least $4,000 bales of raw silk were de-
stroyed. The United States took over
80 per Sent of the silk exported from
that country. Now the industry is
paralysed. This will stimulate the maxi
! ing of artificial silk in this country.
r, As result both Of the earthquake.
famine in the orient and the threatened
war in the Balkans. there will be ex-
! traordinary demand for our grain and
I meats. Cotton also is in demand by
Japan. Americans can afford to pay
more for their silks--or substitute wool
ens-if there is rise in the world price
1 OF farm products.
The Department of Agriculture tells
| us that the cost, this year. of the pro-
duction of wheat averaged $l.23 per
! bushel, and oats cost SO cents. Wheat
sold this week in Chicago at S102 to
s1.03 a bushel. September delivery.
That means only about So cents on the
farm. 1t means that every bushel of
wheat caused loss to the producer of
not less than 3S cents. A farmer who
| had 100 acres of wheat produced prob
ably 1,5oo bushels, on which ne lost
$50.
But that is obviously an under
statement, for the departments esti-
| mate OF cost does not consider the
| clements of the soil which wheat
carries Rff the farm. That loss is just
| as reaTas is the cost of labor, rent
| of land. etc. Few farmers take the
| loss of fertility into consideration IN
| raising grain. but il seems strange
| that ii is not computed by the scien-
! lists in giving out a statement of cost
| OF production. When farming is de-
voted to dairying and butterma king,
and the skim milk is fed to hogs,
practically no fertility is carried off
bushels of grain leave the farm.
away goes several hundred dollars
worth Of fertility, and fertility
| means dollars in the remaining value
| of the soil
| 1t miners were to discover a new
anthracite region with great bodies
| of pure. high-grade coal so near the
surface that any farmer, with pick
and shovel. could gather two or three
! tons in an hour. there would be quite
furry amongst operators and min
! ers who are now holding up fright
ened public.
Practically, that is what is an
nounced this week by the United
States bureau Of mines. An apparatus
! has been perfected by this bureau
which will successfully convert Iig-
| mite into frSt-class anthracite
! The bureau is open to proposals from
! private parties to take over the ap-
/ paratus and go into the Ignite re-
gionS of North Dakota and Montana
| This new apparatus does not merely
make briuucttes of the soft Ignite; it
! makes hard anthracite. The making
! OF briquettes is a score of years old.
but the objection is that the briQuettes
{ are merely squeezed lignite-smoky
and unsatiSfying as to heat.
| n x
| There is an ineXhaustible supply of
| Ignite in North Dakota and Montana
/ estimated to be $4,000. 900. 900 tons.
The total in the United States
amounts to over thousand billion
| tons Q.051. .29O ,OOO,0O0). 1t exists also
! in parts of Canada. and the Canadian
bureau of mines has made a very sat
isfactory test of the new method of
manufacturing anthracite out of the
abundant material. The manufactured
anthracite is as different from the
! raw material as coke differs from coal
! 1t is smokelcsS and hot. If il supplied
the great demand of the midwest it
would relieve the demand for
eastern anthracite as to benefit the
eastern consumers market very ma
; terially.
Copyright. 1873. by PAU Y. Collns.l