108 THE THIRD POWER 



the market reports, when the visible of any crop in- 

 creases considerably from free marketing the price 

 goes down. When farmers stop marketing, prices go 

 up. This is very clearly shown in the cattle markets. 

 We reproduce from the Chicago Live Stock World 

 as follows : 



■ ■ , 



'Country shippers are surely not hurting cattle 

 buyers by sending in little runs of cattle on days 

 when more could be used at steady prices and piling 

 up a glut on one or two days when prices go off 

 ten to twenty-five cents and oftentimes worse. 

 "Here is the way it looks on paper : 



Monday receipts 36,010, prices 10 @ 15c lower 



Tuesday receipts 7,081, prices steady 



Wednesday receipts.. 25,174, prices steady 



Thursday receipts 11,472, prices 10 @ 15c higher 



Friday receipts 2,990, prices 10 @ 15c higher 



Monday again 36,000, prices 10 @ 15c lower 



"It ought not to be hard to figure out who gets 

 the worst of this sort of a distribution of cattle." 



But there are those who think that the farmers are 

 getting fair prices now — and of course they do get 

 fair prices sometimes. However, let us consider the 

 case of wheat as typical. Is $1 too much? For the 

 past fourteen years, from 1888 to 1902, the average 

 price of wheat in Chicago was 76 2-3 cents. The 

 average yield is less than thirteen bushels an acre. 

 Taking thirteen bushels as a liberal average, it ap- 

 pears that during this time the farmer has realized 

 $9.95 off each acre planted in wheat. This is for the 

 use of an acre for one year, and must cover the cost 

 of labor, of seed, of sowing, of care, of harvesting, 



