Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1930-10-09
ANNUAL HOSPITAL DAY OCTOBER 18th
wheat WORTH MORE
FOR FEED PURPOSE
THAN FOR SELLING
Livestock Feeding Brings
! Greater Returns Than Fill
ing Grain Elevators

st. Paul-"Don't faint when you
read these prices" is the phrase that
was written on a country grain ell
evator bulletin board at Sanish, N.
D., by Tom Nelson, Manager. This
phrase probably best expresses the
sentiment of farmers regarding the
present prices being paid at county
points Of anything that could be writ
ten, the weekly agricultural review
of the Farmers Union Terminal As
ISOLATION says.
Accompanying the phrase" the re-
view says, twas a list of prices be-
ing paid at that station, which is
representative of western North Da-
kota. The prices per bushel were:
N. / dark northern wheat Sc
No. / durum wheat 40
Flax SLAB
Rye IA
Ra rlav .25
Oats IL
1.-THE don't faint phrase describes
the attitude Of the farmer. Bewilder-
ment and amazement that prices for
grains should sink to the low levels
they have reached are expressed BY
the growers. There is less Of bit
terness than bewilderment.
"At another elevator, shipping to a
private grain commission firm and
not a cooperative, was written,
Hoover prosperity standing on One
Legge,' as indicative of the bitterness
of the battle with the co-operatives
for the grain business.
A 1000 mile trip to grain eleva-
tors of Minnesota, Montana and the
Dakotas indicated that farmers are
selling only as much wheat as they
are forced to sell. They are storing
on farms, in local elevators and at
terminals to a larger extent than
ever before. However, many are
forced to sell their wheat at any price
they can get to pay up labor and
store bills and taxes.
"In some cases farmers have haul
ed their grain to the local elevator,
looked wei the prices, and hauled
their grain back to the farm. One
mar paid a combine harvesting bill
of $195 for 1870 acres of wheat near
Sanish at an extremely low combine
rate of $1.50 an acre and received
$105 for the wheat from that land.
He would have saved $50 by touching
a match to the grain or turning live
stock to feed in it, but had expected
a larger yield. This is an extreme
case but not unusual in some sections
of western North Dakota and Mon
tana.
"This argument was put up to one
farmer: Farmers are not the only
ones suffering from poor business
conditions. Other industries have
been hurt. Sugar, cotton, rubber and
copper and other commodities are re-
latively as low as wheat. Don't you
think that industry has suffered as
much?
"Great blazes, man." was the
pTOInpJ DuL CiipiiociN iSPiJ' ~
lines of industry have been hit in the
past year, but industry generally
doomed along for ten years and while
we have been facing depression near
ly every year since 1921. Wall
Street is complaining about M year
of bad business after ten years of
booms. If they have to face ten years
of depression like We have, they will
have something to complain about
"Inquiring about wheat feeding re-
vealed that little wheat has been fed
on farms as yet. Farmers plan to
feed barley, rye and low priced
grains first and expect to feed wheat
on a large scale when pastures are
no longer available if prices are not
improved in the meantime The gem
eral sentiment is that wheat is worth
much more for feeding than for sell
ing at present prices"