OCR Text |
Show FACTS DEFLATE PESSIMISM E. T. Meredith of Des Moines, former for-mer secretary of agriculture, cites the following facts: On July 1, 1922, the price of corr per bushel on the farm was 62.2 cents, and in the same date that year it was 86.5 cents per bushel. The farm price of winter wheat slumped from 93 cents to 87 cents per bushel; oats increased from 37 3 cents to 42.5 cents per bushel and barley from 52.2 to 55.7 cents per bushel. These prices were taken as of July Ju-ly 1 each year and are the farm prices, not the price at marketing centers from which transportation charges have to be deducted. The department also furnishes sta tistics on the production in bushels of each crop and their value at the prices given above. These figures show that the total value of these principal grain crops on July 1, 1922, was $3, 183, 682,-000 682,-000 while on July 1 of this year the total market value at the farm of these same grain crops was $3,683,-506,000 $3,683,-506,000 or $499,824 000 more than last year. It is time to deflate pessimism in this country, political pessimism not sustained by facts. This does not mean that everything is rosy with the farmer. He has borne an unjust share of the post-war liquidation. The prices of the things he is called upon to buy are still too high. But this does not mean that conditions are steadily stead-ily getting worse and that the American Amer-ican farmer is bankrupt '- |