Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-07-22

of Kansas are marking an epoch In the
States history of wheat.
There are dramas in the making of
this epoch. There is a well distributed
bumper crop, estimated at $4,000, 900
bushels. which six weeks ago promised
to sell well below the dollar mark.
Then came pessimistic reports from
Canada and the Northwest. The price
jumped as 1t had not jumped since war
days-4O cents in six weeks, Is cents
In two days. Wheat has sold in this
city recently for as high as $l67.
A stored surplus from the old crop
of between 100000 and 100000
bushels, which promised to drug the
market earlier, has proved a benefac-
| ton.
There is a drama in the mechanics
Of the harvest-a drama OF combines
| replacing thousands of men. There is
a drama for the farmers wife freed by
| the combines of the necessity OF pre-
pairing meals for dozens or scores Of
harvest hands.
There is drama of more scientific
agriculture, which means increased
yields.
One can find the wheat tempo around
Ulysses, the county seat Of Grant
County. It runs something like this:
Stores. garages, machine shops and
cafes open at S o'clock in the morning;
the noisy exhaust of wheat trucks
very few horses now from O'Clock
in the morning until night, implement
dealers running shop night and day,
ice cream being hauled to combine
crews at noon, stores open until mid
ngiht, the screech of the sickle bar
sharpener until o'clock in the morn
ing. Anything to do with the harvest
comes first.
If you are a truck driver, you get
the quickest service at the restaurant
counter. If you tell merchant you
are anxious to get back to the field,
the clerks run to wait on you. That
there Is a harvest complex, it Is easy
to understand. The cash crop is saw
ing things-it's farm relief
Kansas Is making the most-both. in
Joy and money-out of the fortunate
turn in her wheat situation.
Dollar wheat was magic on the
prairie. And virtually every field Of
the eleven and a half million acres
sown to wheat is producing a crop
varying from to As bushels an acre,
an average Of about Is.
Two months ago close students of
the wheat situation feared that new
wheat would start as low as IS cents a
bushel. The more optimistic placed
the probable price at about rs cents.
1t appeared there would be a glut OF
wheat. The wheat fields, the world
over, appeared to be prospecting.
But Canada and the American
Northwest didn't get rain.
So everything has combined to bull
the market for the Kansas crop. Low
tests in localities where crops failed
caused millers to buy large quantities
Of Kansas wheat to bring up the Spring
wheat average for milling purposes.
Exporters began to purchase for the
same reason, and also because of the
shortage.
Before the better fortune smiled.
bankers, farmers and grain men had
sort of gentleman's agreement that
they would talk down yields in an eff
fort to take up prices. Booster crop
talk was a high crime and the new
wheat began to move onto the market
in some cases in pure optimism and in
others of pure neceSsity-So that
harvest bills could be paid.
Thousands Of Bushels Stored.
Thousands and thousands of bushels
were placed in storage, much of it piled
in golden heaps on the ground until
better prices should come.
Harvest and the bad reports from
Canada and the Northwest came in
time to send the price of wheat above
a dollor as the Kansas crop began to
move. The farmer got 81 or more for
almost all his CROP When the spectacu-
lar rises in price came 1t was estimated
by State agencies that less than one
third of the crop had been placed on
the market.
This year, due to low freight rates
on export wheat much wheat from
Kansas was shipped direct to Galveston
This created an unusual export situa-
ton. The foreign buyers got the best
grade wheat. They usually take what's
left after the American mills finish
their buying. And there also resulted
such a glut at Galveston that an en-
barge on wheat was declared.
At 4:30 o'clock, any morning back
In 1920, one would have found on al
most any Kansas wheat farm, sleepy
harvest hands, most of them out of the
cities and many Of them from the East
tumbiing out of their barn beds to
feed horses In the darkness. They care
fully cleaned the shoulders. for upon
horses and mules hinged the Important
task of harvesting the wheat. After
a bolted breakfast, they went into the
field with header barge.
The sun having dried the dew. the
header began its interminable round of
the field its consort, the barge, hug
ging close to the elevator.
A Huge Loaf Like Bread.
The barge filled. it headed for the
stack yard. as another barge became
handmaiden to the header. At the
stack yard the driver and another man
or two forked the headed wheat into
the stack, huge loaf resembling the
bread 1t was to become. Other men
came after the cutting and stacking
was done to do the thrashing.
But $50 on a wheat-belt farm In
1929 is different. A farmer and his son,
or perhaps a hand or two. leisurely
eat breakfast. There Is no particular
hurry. There are no horses to curry
and the combine can't get into the
wheat until the dew has thoroughly
dried.
About z o'clock. the harvesters motor
to the field. The tractor which pulls
the combine is creased, supplied with
gasoline and water.
A man on the tractor, one on the
combine and a wheat hauler resting IN
his truck while the combines bins begin
to fill comprise the crew. They can
operate q field twice as large as SIX"
man header crew could. They will cover
1t faster than the old-time crew and
when they finish the crop Is on the way
to market and not in the stack.
Often, when the harvest Is completed.
the tractor which pulled the combine
will be hitched to pillow. and. operated
by the same crew. will prepare the
ground at once for new planting. :.
But the saving Of labor and the speed
Of work is not the only interesting fea-