WESTERN COMPETITION. 231 



was harvested. At present wheat is selling at different stations 

 upon the railroad from fort3'-seven to fifty cents per bushel. This 

 would give for the best result $7.60 per acre. This shows a falling 

 off in prices and also a depression in the business. 



Now, what does it cost to raise an acre of wheat? I was told by 

 a gentleman who represents a large wheat field in Dakota, that to 

 hire the labor, the wear and tear on machinery, taxes and all other 

 expenses pertaining to the running of one of these large farms would 

 be somewhere between seven and eight dollars per acre. Now, if 

 this be true, you can see at once the small margin these large farmers 

 are working upon at the present time. He remarked that small 

 farmers were doing the best. He sa3's a man with a pair of good 

 horses can plow, harrow, seed and harvest one hundred acres of 

 wheat, if he is diligent from the time the spring opens until the 

 ground shuts up in the fall. And if his crop yields him fifteen bush- 

 els per acre, at fifty cents per bushel, he receives $750 for his 3'ear's 

 work. Let us bear in mind that this is not an average yield, but a 

 good result. Some will not do as well, and perhaps some ma}' be a 

 little better. Now, this is the farmer's whole year's work, and if he 

 is prudent and has not too large a family to support, and is content 

 to live in a shanty and shelter his horses in a straw shed ; and is 

 luckv enouo;h not to Sfet blown out of existence bv one of those 

 terrible cyclones that visit that country frequently ; and does not 

 get short of wood, or coal, or provisions, or water during some of 

 those blizzards that often blow a couple of weeks without cessation, 

 perhaps he can save something. But what is he really doing? Why, 

 he is simply selling his labor for $750 per year, and throwing in 

 1500 bushels of wheat and the fertilizing material from his soil to 

 bind the bargain. 



To prove that farmers are somewhat aware of the fact, let me read 

 to you a few lines taken from the St. Paul Farmer: "Low prices 

 and a decline in the average harvest have set the farmers of Rothsay, 

 Wilkins county, to thinking over the ways and means out of the 

 present depression. Like sensible farmers the}' have concluded that 

 their cows must help solve the problem, and the Rothsay Creamery 

 Company is the outcome." It goes on to sa}', "We consider this one 

 of the most cheering indications that the farmers of the Northwest 

 begin to consider their situation from a practical standpoint, that 

 they must appeal to some method whereby to work themselves out 

 of a depression into which a mistaken idea of what constitutes pro- 

 fitable farming has led them. And the present financial cloud that 



