MAGIC OF THE MIXING-HOUSE 



by-product of milling) and going the limit, 

 say that four and a half bushels of wheat are 

 required to make three hundred loaves of 

 bread. We shall then have this showing: 



300 loaves of bread at 10 cents $30.00 



Mill feeds in four and a half bushels of wheat . . 1 . 50 



Total $31.50 



Four and a half bushels of wheat at $2 . 75 cost . 12 . 37 



Margin 119.13 



It is manifest that here is a huge discrepancy. 

 The bread -eaters are paying far too much ; the 

 wheat-growers getting far too little. 



It was not the wheat-growers alone that 

 suffered from the abnormal conditions brought 

 about by the system that custom had im- 

 posed upon farming. In the darkest days of 

 the Northwest, inspired preachers of the 

 doctrine of patient submission to organized 

 greed were in the habit of urging upon the 

 lowly agriculturist a variation of crops as the 

 real panacea for all this. Investigation has 

 shown that in the regions where there was 

 this blessing in full blast, where the soil was 

 peculiarly fertile, and where all things ought 

 to smile upon the husbandman, the net prod- 

 uct of his toil for a year was less than that 

 of a ditch-digger. If this be doubted, I take 

 the actual records and invite comment thereon 

 from sanguine souls that still cling to the 

 notion that the farmers are wading knee-deep 

 in legal tenders. The two counties are in 



61 



