THE STORY OF THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 



f adapted to the region, and the next year great 



/ quantities of it were sown. 



I 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^ 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 useful men of all times 

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

 indebtedness to him. 



78 



