THE STORY OF THE XOXPARTISAN LEAGUE 



adapted to the region, and the next year great 

 quantities of it were sown. 



When it began to reach the Minneapolis 

 Chamber of Commerce, the mysterious San- 

 hedrin there that determined so many things 

 for the Northwest, held that "velvet chaff" 

 was an inferior product and fixed a price 

 upon it 27 cents below the corresponding 

 grades in other wheats. In one season 30,- 

 000,000 bushels of "velvet chaff" passed 

 through the hands of Minneapolis buyers, 

 and at the prices thus arbitrarily fixed for it 

 this quantity represented an abnormal profit 

 of $8,100,000. For "velvet chaff" was in 

 reality one of the best milling wheats ever 

 grown, and the mills that got it for 27 cents 

 a bushel less than they would have paid for 

 similar grades of a different name put it 

 into their best flours 1 and harvested new and 

 unusual revenues therefrom. 



Almost the same record with the like illegiti- 

 mate profits was made upon the introduction 

 of durum, or macaroni wheat, another much- 

 prized innovation of the national Agricult- 

 ural Department. It is no wonder that after 

 repeated experiences of this kind the North- 

 western farmers became cynically doubtful 



1 The demonstration of this fact was due to the indefatigable 

 Dr. E. F. Ladd. of the North Dakota Agricultural College, who is 

 surely entitled to be called one of the most u.seful men of all time.s 

 or lands. The farmers of the United States can never liquidate their 

 indebtedness to him. 



