THE PRICE OF WHEAT.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 1982, 5 May 1885, Page 2

THE PRICE OF WHEAT.

(American Agriculturist,)

"Well,".said the deacon, "what do you think of the West?" "The foot is, deacon," I said, "I aju trying not to think of it at all. I am trying to put it out of my head. It is too big a subject for me, ( I cannot take it in, One thing is certain, the-West is going ahead with marvellous rapidity." "And we are going back,'" said the deacon, "we cannot stand the present prices. :The.cheap lands of the West are flooding us ; with cheap,wheat, and there is no hope for us. We cannot stand'it., There is no chance to make money by farming. Wheat has carried everything down with it, .arid what is to become of us is more than I can tell," "If it was true, Deacon," 1 said, "that there is 'no hope' for us, I should aeroe with you. It is this word ' hope' that constitutes the great difference between us and the West. The people of the West are more hopeful than we are, There ia intense activity and persisted energy and push. 'Never say die' is the motto of the real Western man. But in saying this, mark you, I dp not mean that a Western man is different from an Eastern map. We are all one people. We eat and drink, and. sleep alike, dress alike, and talk alike. •'•■ This was what impressed me. Go. where, we -might-, we njeet Eastern people, anaVsoiptimes, especially among the women, when talking to them of their earlier homfis, a shade of sadness wouhl paps over their fages, but it was only for a moment. They aroused thomselves-and got ready to go to have a good time at the, skating rink, or some other gathering, Life at the West, as I saw it, ig eminently Booia], and as I said before, it is above, all hopeful. It is not a .passive hopefulness; it is active and practical. What their hands find to do, they do with their might, and there is plenty to do." ,-.'•' " This is all vory well," said the Deacon, "but for my partj. cannot see how they mike anything ■ raising wheat at the preseut prices"-" They do not.make anything directly,",l said, "and they are ssmewhat discouraged."' Many of them talked of giving up wheat. I told them that would b9 a mistake. In ray judgment, wheat wiE advance; It is not diffi - cult to understand why prices are so low at present. There is a good crop almost everywhere. And to read the papers, and to hear people talk, oiie would think that there is no demand for wheat anywhere. It ts a great mistake. England, in round numbers, will require two hundred million, bushels of wheat. Of this she has raised seventy-tlirce million bushels. She will havo to import one hundred and twenty-seven million bushels." "She wilfhave no trouble in getting it," said the Doctor. " She haß' the world.to draw from" " Of that," said I, "there can be no doubt. But farmers ought not to feel so awfully scared. The world eats a good deal of wheat in a year. There ave fifty million mouths to fill in the United States alone everyday. They can easily make away with two hundred and fifty million bushels pf wheat in a year, and if many farmers do as they are now doing; feed wheat to the pigs, there will not be much old wheat left at this time next year." "The most curious part about it all," said the squire, "is tho willingness of farmers to sell wheat at present prices. Thoy are selling much more freely than if wheat was one dollar and fifty cents per bushel." "They have made up their minds," Baid I, that wheat will not be higher at present, and I presume that they are right. ;No man, or body of men, can resist the present current of public opinion. Go where you will, talk to whom you may; read what paper you like, and you find a universal belief that wheat is so abundant that it is folly .to keep it or store it, or have anything to do with it. Tho facts, to say the'least, are greatly exaggerated." " So you haye been West." said a Bank President to me a few days ago, "you ought to have gone to Dakota. I wasthere last summer, and Mr- Dalrimple met us and took us to'see his farm. I never saw anything like it. He has 75,000.acres in wheat.and it yields forty bushels per acre. .'•The soil is twenty-five' feet deep,-and so rich that, Mr D. says, they had to grow l , six or eight crops of wheat in. succession,! before they could got the 'soil poor enough- to grow corn." And this intelligent gentleman actually believed the Btory. No wonder lie thinks > the farmers of Western Now York cannot 1 afford to raise wheat, and you will fini this-impression everywhere; The English French, and German farmersare asfingprotection against the cheap whedt of America, -These stories frighteiif'lh'em.

They do not understand that newspaper writers like to toll something neW-BOtne* thing big. They .forget Wo, that-the railroads own millions of acres of land that they desire toidispose of. Speculators also own larfd that t]gt wish to sell —the actual settlers not indisposed to accept a gpod; offer for their farms. The; towns and vUlages-are. ; prepared; ; 'to Welcome I newcomers,; arid'they.'knoV that it is the rich land, .and-large',' easily grown crops, that form tlie chief at6raction. Even the bulls' in Wall St. are; statements showing'the enormous quantities of wheal that this orthat railroad was transport* ing. No wonder the English farmer thinks lie -needs' protection; no wonder, that the farmers of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois are nervous over the prospects of agriculture- rs fonder the BanTkpresidents hesitate; .fo';:loan money, and- that millers are afraid to buy wheat, and bakers to buy mote flour than will keep their ovens going from day to day, or as the market reports say, ". from hand to mouth,"

"Do you mean to have, us think," said the Doctor, "that you. really believe there is no gpsind valid; reason for the present low price of wheat?-We do not wish todoiibt believe," said I, " that the low priftof wheat is the resulilargely of gros3:;Stggeration-* of highly colored'statements of the fertility and productiveness of new and cheap land, and.that as soonias the actual facts are known,, people will be astonished at their credulity:and folly;': I found.the farmers at the ; Wejt'. disposed to abandon wheat culture. 1 '.l,"advised them strongly. to hold on'.'.; I should" say the same thing tothe farmers 'here, as. well as to the fanners in Engiarid!'. There is no.country hi the 'world.' 'where wheat can be prowft at-present "prices, and wo shall soon find it .put. But 1 will say no more on the subject at present."' •>- ,-