18 AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION IN THE UNITED STATES. [Sept. 1894. 



This method of farming is reported to have reduced the 

 cost of producing wheat in the Dakotas to about eighteen 

 pence a bushel on an average yield. 



Improvements in farm implements and machinery are 

 admitted to have had some effect in reducing the cost of pro- 

 duction on large estates, but it is doubted whether they have 

 had much influence in this direction on small farms. 



Among the further causes of the depression, the Sub-Com- 

 mittee refer particularly to certain forms of business carried on 

 in the produce exchanges, known as dealing in " Options and 

 Future?/' and to the organisation of facilities for quickly and 

 cheaply collecting grain at great centres. By far the larger 

 part of the surplus wheat of the country is said to find its way 

 to the elevators at Chicago, Toledo, and other cities soon after it 

 is harvested. The grain dealers and merchants at these points 

 have their agents scattered throughout the wheat-growing 

 region when the grain is being threshed, and, in the West and 

 North-west, most of the grain is sold as soon as the threshing is 

 completed. The country is thus rapidly drained of wheat, and 

 while the process is going on, every dealer is interested in 

 keeping prices at the lowest point. The influcDce exercised by 

 these operations is stated to be immense when concentrated 

 upon a single crop. The principle involved is the same as that 

 which operates in all great combinations of men and capital 

 in particular enterprises. The dealers are there to make money, 

 and their profits come from purchases and sales. It is to their 

 interest to buy low and sell high, and although they are 

 affected to some extent by market rates they themselves have 

 much to do in regulating the market. 



As regards the decline in the values of live stock, the Sub- 

 Committee observe that the prices of cattle have been the most 

 affected, and this they attribute largely to the abnormal 

 development of the cattle-raising industry in Texas and the 

 North- Western Territories, and to the conditioiis that have 

 grown out of that business. 



The depression of land-values is ascribed to two special causes, 

 viz., debt and taxation. The indebtedness of American farmers 

 has been, and now is, very heavy ; the average per capita debt on 

 real estate — farms and houses — for the entire country was, in 

 January 1890, 21/. That is to say, the land mortgage debt 

 owned by individual owners was equal to a debt of 211. to each 

 person in the United States. In respect of taxation, it is 

 remarked that a large amount of personal property entirely 

 escapes the payment of taxes, thus throwing a greater burden 

 on the land. It is maintained that this unjust discrimination 

 against real estate cannot fail to have a depressing influence on 

 land values. 



The other chief causes of the fall in prices, mentioned in the 

 report, are the unfair discrimination in railway rates, and the 

 monetary disturbaaces. 



