Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 July 1877 — When to Sell. [ARTICLE]

When to Sell.

The expectation of receiving extraordinary prices, by holding for a rise, has kept many a farmer poor all his life. Speculation in farm products is certainly as legitimate as any other speculation; and if there is any undue amount of money to be made in them, it is certainly right that the farmer instead of the dealer should make it. But on the other hand the advantage in the long run is clearly with the farmer who is contented to secure a legitimate price for what he raises. There is a certain fixed value to hops, to butter, to cheese, to fruit, which the agriculturist determines, not by some excessive demand but by the amount of time and money it has cost him to raise them, adding a fair profit for his risk and trouble. This fixed value he is not always able to obtain. When he can get ,it he might better close the'bargain than to wait for possibilities. With the money once in his pocket and the immediate use of that money, he is satisfied that his labor has received a fair reward. His neighbor studies the markets, bargains for a little percentage above the fixed value, anticipates an increased demand, and a speculative price, and holds on to his products. In the mean time he needs the money that these products represent, and perhaps borrows at high rates to tide himself over an emergency. Meanwhile, the actual value of his products is all the time shrinking as he waits for an increase in their fictitious and speculative value. If the latter does not come, he and not the dealer or the consumer, must bear that natural shrinkage in value. It is rare that a speculative value in any product of agriculture is not discounted in advance. Any shrinkage in the quantity of production affects the price before the scarcity produced by that shrinkage is felt. This fact is becoming more and more evident as our system of advance crop estimates becomes more and more perfect. To sum up, the producer will profit more, in the end, by accepting, upon the earliest opportunity, a fair remuneration for his products and making immediate use of the money they bring, than by holding on for a speculative rise, running the risk of a heavy fall, and losing the use of the money in the meantime. The Troy Times relates the case of a farmer who made it an invariable rule to turn his crops into cash as soon as they were ready for market, whatever the price might be. Sometimes he lost, but more frequently gained, and an experience of thirty years convinced him that he bad made no mistake in ad herlng to the rule. This case can douhtless be offset with innumerable instances, wfiere farmers, by waiting one, two "or three, months longer than their neighbors, have realized extraordinary profits. But no man's experience is, uniform in that direction; and it is true of speculation in the products of the farm as it is true of speculation in Wall street; the proportion of those who fail is ninety to every ten who succeed, —Utica {N. F.) Herald.