The Indianapolis times., 1935-08-17
WHEAT-A GAME OF HIGH STAKES
Indiana Farmers Lay the Line-and This Year They Lose
BY JOE COLLIER
Times Steh Writer

THE story goes that once
upon a time an en-
ragged farmer who lost
money on his wheat made
a special trip to Chicago,
walked on to the floor Of
the Board Of Trade, and
promptly shot one of the
traders.
No one without an ad-
mittance card now is al
lowed on the floor.
There's another story that once
upon a time the market got so
feverish that traders in the pit
tore the shirts from one anothers
backs. and wound up the after
noon in a state of widespread lack
of dignity /
There's a rule now that no one
is permitted on the floor without
a coat.
These traders daily deal in
wheat that isn't grown yet. It's
all very confusing, especially when
the buying itself seems to be done
with mirrors. Nobody shouts any,
thing at any one that means
anything in ordinary speech, and
yet they buy and sell thousands
Of bushels by merely Wiggllng
their fingers and hollering "Heyl"
Possibly as a concession to the
materialiSts among them, they do
have some wheat in little paper
sacks around the place, but all
the pitmen do with it is stuff it
down fellow pitmens backs-a
practical joke Of which they never
seem to tire.
DISPATCHES from Argentina
- that it rained lightly there
today will send the market into
fury for a few moments, after
which it subsidies until a dispatch
from Canada says, perhaps, that
a Mountie or some one found an
expectant mama chinch bug max
ing straight for a wheat field
If there is any one thing in
the world the traders in the
Board of Trade don't know, it is
how long their last guess will
seem good TO them.
Well, when you're farmer in
Indiana the only difference in the
situation is that you don't get to
guess as often, and you put the
money. or its equivalent, on the
line when you make that first
guess.
The prospect of dollar wheat
this year put song in the heart
of the Indiana farmer who went
about sowing it, 1t takes a good
price to make anything from
wheat. The seed comes high and
the crop itself seems to be par
ticularly vulnerable to bugs and
weather.
II EARLY in the year the Purdue
II University agricultural expe-
riment station at Lafayette esti-
mated that wheat might average
over the state about 20 or more
bushels to the acre. That seemed,
at the time, a pretty reasonable
estimate.
Then it started to rain-one of
those rains that makes the Chi
cago Board of Trade go into tall
spins and keep its shirt on only
because there's coat there to
keep it in bounds.
Eventually rust set in. Rust at
tackS the wheat in way that
causes top grains to fall from the
head. while bottom grains are not
even ripe yet. This, of course,
reduces the yield.
The Board of Trade took due
notice of the rust situations and
prices went to a dollar. Wheat
ripened. was cut and shocked. A
few good days came along and
the farmer who had his wheat
cut decided to pillow corn. which
at the time needed plowing worse
than the wheat, he thought, need
ed thrashing.
Then the rains set in again and
he couldn't thrash the wheat. The
upshot of the whole thing is that
Indiana wheat probably won't
make much more than IS bushels
to the acre. and that will be wet.