Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 44, Number 178, 9 May 1919 — Page 2

PAGE TWO

THE RICHMOND PALLADIUM AND SUN-TELfciGKAM " FKlDAxYMAY

FARMER'S COST OF PRODUCING BUSHEL OF WHEAT IS S2.47

9

- By E DAVENPORT (In The Saturday Evening Post)

O produce a bushel of wheat requires In general terms about a fifteenth of an acre of land, an hour's work of the fanner, and two hours' work of a horse not to mention Investment in machinery. It is a general

rule the country over that two horse hours are equal in value to one man hour; so this man and his team devote the equivalent of two man hours to the production of a bushel of wheat. Besides this, and .in. general, onetenth of a bushel was sown for seed

the year, before, cast to. the winds

purely on raitn; ana at least anotner tenth goes for twine, machinery and threshing. The bushel of wheat will remove from the soil nearly one and a half pounds of nitrogen, which would cost, if bought in the open market, not less than "from twenty-five to thirty cents; while as much more is likely to be lost by drainage and wash, because nitrogen compounds are exceedingly soluable. It will also remove a quarter of a pound of phosphorus, which will cost at least six cents lo replace, and an equal amount of potassium, which will cost about half as much more. Suppose, for the sake of computation, we account the farmer as entitled to the plumber's wage of seventy-five cents an hour waiving the dollar rate under contemplation and agree that his three-hundred-dollar to six-hundred dollar team shall be reckoned at thm r.te of th plumber's helper. We chall ignore the value of nitrogen, because Dy good farming it can be gotten gratis out of the atmosphere, and we shall hare need of all possible savPut we shall be obliged to in cludo the phosphorus and tire potassium, because they are sold out of stock and once for all. Just as truly as are groceries, from the merchant's shelves, with no way of restoration except by purchase. How Can He Do It Though conditions vary greatly and

no single figure can represent the cost of production, yet in general the account against the bushel of wheat will ttand substantially as follows: One hour of farmer's labor, plumber's rate ..$0.75 One hour of team's labor, helper's rate '.. 50 One-tenth bushel seed 22 One-tenth bushel twine, machinery, threshing .22 Interest on ten dollars' worth of land .60 Taxes on ten dollars' worth of land .. 10 Fertiliser One and a half pounds nitrogen .00 One-quarter pound phosphorus .OR One-quarter pound potassium.. .02

Total . ..$2.47 How does he do it, even now, at two dollars and twenty-six cents? And how in the name of all the gods did he do it all those years for seventy cents or less? The writer can make answer, for he was there and he knows. It was achieved only by long days and cheap land, and at the expense of fertility and by the labor of children. Even so, to get the amount Jdown to seventy cents the farmer

himself must needs work for less than the lowest wage. For obvious reasons those days are definitely over in America, and forever! Average Farming It may be objected that good farm

ing will produce more than the yields

herein indicated and that is true, especially, in good seasons; but we are

talking now about all kinds of farming

in all sorts of seasons; in other words.

the average, such as we must depend

upon for wholesale results.

Taking the country as a whole, good,

bad and indifferent, one year with another, it will require a plot of land

fifty feet square to produce a bushel

of wheat. This means that , when the

farmer is growing wheat at seventy

cents a bushel he will plow, harrow,

seed and harvest a piece of ground

six feet square for one cent of gross income; and at two-twenty-six the entire proceeds of these thirty-six square feet would buy a single three-cent postage stamp! Verily farming is a highly remunerative business, and the farmer is in danger of becoming a profiteer! And what will this bushel of wheat do for the farmer who produced it? Manfestly it will feed him as well and as long as it will feed anybody else; and it is the greatest single food known to the world. Nobody knows this so well as the farmer. But what will it buy for him? Out of the markets of the world what will it secure that will contribute to the necessities and the comforts of the fanner? What a Bushel Will Buy At two-twenty-six, a bushel of wheat will buy a pair of gloves, one cheap shoe, or a cotton shirt. Should the farmer chance to travel, it would buy him a berth for a night in the sleeping car and tip the porter in the morning. It would give him a bed in a good

hotel in almost any city, but without a bath. On Saturday night he would need to invest at least another peck. The bushel would be enough to buy

a very simple meal for himself and wife on the dining car or at a good restaurant, provided they share the meat order; but if they want a real dinner, with soup, fish, salad and dessert, they must invest at least a bushel apiece and even so make a

good get-away from the waiter. To buy the cheapest automobile, he would need the full production from twenty acres; while the average farm, put entirely to wheat, would not produce enough in a year, at gross sale, to purchase a good seven-passenger car. At the old price pt seventy cents, the bushel of wheat would buy a necktie, a quarter of a dozen collars, or a toothbrush each for the farmer and his wife. It would buy a pair of suspenders or two pairs of socks such as the farmer wears. Comparative Values. It would take five bushels, or one hundred days' food, to buy the farmer a hat, and the total produce of nearly three acres to buy him an overcoat or a thirty-dollar suit. One bushel would buy him a monkey wrench or a plow point; but it would require a hundred and eighty bushels, or more than five tons, to buy a self-binder wheat enough to make ten thousand

loaves of bread, which if placed end to end would reach a mile or go twice around the ten acres needed to grow it; food enough to maintain ten workingmen for a year, or even thirty, if as now, they obtained twothirds of, their nourishment from food other than wheat. I am sure the reader feels' that 'this must be untypical; but let him be assured that the great bulk of the wheat of this country has been raised and marketed at the price of seventy cents or lower. The writer has sold hundreds of bushels below this figure, alongside of meat at two or three cents a pound; and even as recently as the first year of the war, the

bulk of the wheat left the west at seventy cents or less the same wheat that sold before the next harvest at

three-forty to three-fifty. , Relative Expenditures The consumer objects to two-twenty-six wheat because he feels that it makes the necessities of life prohibi

tive in price

Does he stop to consider relative J elsewhere,

troubles but we kick the humble staple, wheat, that, has all along, and unnoticed, kept us alive at a rate so low that it was cheaper to live than to die. " - Even so, as soon as wheat raises his head a little, or even begins to nose his way into polite society, we call upon him to get out and keep his place like a poor relation ready to serve, but not too conspicuously. -

-After all and honor -bright! as the boys used to say is it our food that is fairly chargeable with the high cost of living? - Or Is it something else? Upon reliable authority we are informed that no less than forty-five per cent Of the total expense of conducting first-class hotels Is incurred in making them exclusive whatever that may mean. The matter has gone so far that the patron cannot eat in comfort, but must listen to jazz bands, and even mix dancing with eating at the dinner hour, unless he follows the plan that has been forced upon most of us

namely, to room at a hotel and eat

expenditures?

One pair of twelve-dollar shoes would pay for more than five bushels

An Alibi for Wheat.

Even aside from exclusiveness, Is

our food conspicuously responsible for

nf what thn tnii rntinn fnr nne hun-1 the excessive cost of modern living?

dred days, or, on the one-third basis, How about expensive service all along enough to last almost a year. the 1Ine? How about the dues for all

A box of very ordinary cigars costs BoriB ol exclusive ciuos anu anoociai much as three or four bushels ofP01187 How about dress, with its de-

as

wheat, and one twenty-five cent J maud that fashion be changed at least smoke as - much as a full ration offour times a year? How about - ex

pensive entertainment -. xiow uuuui confections that cost ten times the value of the sweets they contain ? I am not saying we should deny ourselves all these things. What I am saying is that we are not to indulge ourselves to the limit in every possible direction and then take it out on our quiet, well-behaved,- com

monplace, everyday wheat, vhlch goes

wheat for two days, or, on the onethird basis, for nearly a week. The city man pays out the price of a bushel of wheat for a single seat at the opera, and thinks he is economizing. He puts it in the tank of his automobile and rides It out in a single Sunday, and wears out a bushel every fifteen miles In doing it.

In the old days of seventy-cent

wheat the writer and his friend paid! V8 J111? f rfally ketpigJ?!

out the full price of a bushel for half

a grapefruit each in a New York restaurant, tips extra; and even now a lady's hat costs him from eight bushels up mostly up. A very very, moderate little engagement diamond costs the value of a hundred bushels, or two thousand days' food of a workingman as measured by wheat. And yet we grumble at the high cost of living when we pay the farmer two dollars and twenty-six cents every sixty days, or six times a year for a full third of all it requires to feed us! Is it the high cost of living or the cost of high living that most affects our pocket books? And is the farmer's toll or our own expensive habits chiefly to

blame? Is it the one-third of our liv

ing that comes from wheat or the twothirds which come from other sources

that must be held responsible for the high cost of living?

Habits the Cause But now that we are brought face

to face with eventualities. we kick

and we kick, not ourselves for expen

sive habits the real cause of our

Here's A Gentle Laxative For Elderly People -

A daOy free movement of the bowels becomes a serious problem as you step frocn middle-life into old age, and much dependence can no longer be placed on nature herself. The bowels find artificial aid necessary. , The stronger the physic, as old people soon learn, the greater the contraction of the bowels thereafter, and so the wise purposely avoid salt waters, pills and other harsh purgatives. Many have learned to place absolute reliance on the gentle but positive action of a combination of simple laxative herbs with pepsin sold by druggists under the name of Dr. Caldwell's Syrup Pepsin. It produces an agreeable movement as nearly natural and free as high pharmaceutical skill can make it. Thousands uae it regularly, in the small dose prescribed, and keep themselves in fine health and good cheer, and entirely free rem constipation. The druggist will refund your money il it tails to do a promised. ft Dr. Caldwell's

OYRUP OEPSIN The Perfect & Laxative FREE SAMPLES If you have never used Dr. CaldweU'i Syrup Pepsin send for a tee trial bottle to Dr. W. B. Caldwell, 468 Waahincton St., MootioeUo, in. If there are babies at&ome.

for a copy at Dr. Caldwell's book. "The

Care of Baby." .

PRICE AS ALWAYS In spits of greatly increased laboratory costs due to the War, by sacrificing profits and absorbing war tans we have maintained the price at which this family laxative has been sold by druggists for the past

ZO years. 1 wo

50c and J1.0O.

alive; and that, too, at an exceedingly modest cost even at two-twenty-six.

$2,034,000,000 VALUE OF WINTER CROP OF WHEAT

CHICAGO, 111., May 9. A winter wheat crop of 900,000,000 bushels in round numbers is estimated by the department of agriculture in its report for May. The crop thus estimated sets a new record, and its total yield is within 17,000,000 bushels of the total winter and spring crops of last year. . With an estimate of 350,000,000 bushels of spring wheat, part of which has not been seeded, a total wheat crop of 1,250,000,000 bushels is possible for the United States. This is enough to allow for 600,000,000 bushels for bread and seed requirements, and 650,000,000 bushels for export, which is within 75,000,000 bushels of the outside estimates of European requirements, and exceeds many of the s numerous forecasts as to the amounts that will be needed. Based

on J2.26 per bushel, the government guaranteed price, the wheat crop is valued at J2,034,000,000. Estimates on Harvest. Should present condition of winter wheat be maintained to harvest the winter wheat crop would be around

950,000,000 bushels. The May esti

mate is for 63,000,000 bushels more than the April forecast, compared with 558,000,000 bushels harvested last year. The record wheat crop for the country is 1,026,000,000 bushels, raised in 1915.

BAVARIAN TROOPS MURDER PRISONERS

(By Associated Press) COPENHAGEN, Wednesday, May 7. A Munich dispatch received here states that following the arrest of some thirty citizens there for holding a prohibited meeting, a party of Bavarian soldiers broke into the prison last night and killed twenty-one of the persons under detention. It is said that the soldiers believed the prisoners were Spartlcides. A court martial has been ordered and a command has been issued that the soldiers found guilty of causing the death of the persons held in Jail be shot.

There is an abundance of rye, estimates being for a yield of 123,000,000 bushels, as compared with 101,000,000 bushels last month and with the record of 89,000,000 bushels last year. In Indiana the per cent of acreage abandoned is 1.0; the acreage remaining to be harvested, 2,862,000; condition on May 1, 1919, 100 per cent; con

dition on May 1, 1918, 96 per cent; ten-year average condition, 81 per cent.. , -7 ,. .

ROTARY TRIP DELAYED

The Richmond Rotary club has postponed its trip to Muncie until May 15, and the Muncie club has postponed its trip to Richmond until May 20. Both will be evening meetings. The regular meeting of the Richmond club wiU be held Tuesday noon. .

Washing Won't Rid Head of Dandruff

Poslam Brings Quick Comfort to Angry Skin

When angry itching skin cries through every nerve of your body for relief, turn to Poslam and let it soothe and allay all inflammation. Learn how efficient Poslam is, what splendid

help it can render in healing eczema, disposing of rashes, pimples, acne, scalp-scale and like disorders. The

test is to apply Poslam at night to a

small affected surface and in the morning to look for improvement. The effect of its concentrated healing energy shows agreeably soon. Sold everywhere. For free sample write to Emergency Laboratories, 234 West 47th St., New York City. Urge your skin to become clearer, fresher, better by the daily use of Poslam Soap, medicated with Poslam. Adv.

PLUMBER THOUGHT HE . NEEDED NEW PIPES' 7 "My stomach and intestines were always full -of gas and I often had severe colic attacks. The pain and soreness caused me to think I needed a new set of pipes. Since taking Mayra Wonderful Remedy all this has disappeared and my only trouble now is to make enough dough to buy all the food I'd like to eat." It i3 a simple, harmless preparation that removes the catarrhal mucus from the intestinal tract and allays tfce inflammation which causes practically all stomach, liver and intestinal ailments, including appendicitis. One dose will

convince or money rerunded. ciem Thistlethwaite's six drug stores and leading - druggists everywhere. Adv.

The only sure way to get rid of dandruff is to dissolve it, then you destroy it entirely. To do this, get about four ounces of ordinary liquid an on; apply it at night when retiring; use enough to moisten the scalp and rub it in gently with the ringer tips. Do this tonight, and by morning,

most if not all, of your dandruff will

be gone, and three or four more appli

cations will completely dissolve and ' entirely destroy every single sign and

trace or at, no matter now mucn aandruif you may have. You will find, too, that all itching and digging of the scalp will stop at once, and your hair will be fluffy, lustrous, glossy, silky and soft, and look and feel a hundred times better.

You can get liquid arvon at any drug j store. It is inexpensive and never j

fails to do the work. Adv.

Commencement Gifts The pleasure young people derive from their commencement gifts justifies the small cost necessary to make them happy. Wrist watches, LaVallleres or other articles of jewelry for the girls. A Gold Watch, Signet Ring or Fountain Pen for the boys. These are only a few of the many suggestions we could make but, jewelry is the thing that interests them most. Haner's Store 810 Main Street

certainly healed that eczema

Now that you can peer into your glass without a frown, you are free to tell others about your good fortune. You can tell them how Resinol Ointment and Resinol Soap relieved the

tortures that eczema brings how hey gradually overcame that irritatfcig and painful eruption, until today you may once more mingle with your iriends unashamed.

Resinol Ointment is a doctor's formula, prescribed by many physicians throughout the world. At all druggists.

r-1

Reliable Dentistry

OF YOUR TEETH You may not have visited a dentist for years. Many people are negligent to that extent. Your teeth probably need complete restoration. Consider now the vital importance of having your teeth in as near perfect condition as possible. Visit Dr. Eudaly's offices. They have accomplished real wonders for people whose case was to them hopeless. Dr. Eudaly has means and methods of tooth restoration that you should learn more about. There is nothing we cannot do for you in a I dental way. Visit us soon. - . All Work Guaranteed for an Unlimited Time. BM. J. A. EUDALY DENTIST Over 715 Main Street Office Hours: 8 to 12 a. m, 1 to 5:30 p. m.; also Monday, Wednesday and Saturday Evenings. " . Look for the Big Sign in the Middle of the Block

Don't Load Up the Storekeeper

Sometimes you can make a merchant believe your goods will sell, even though you know better, Mr. Traveling Salesman. Sometimes you merely have to say, "These are advertised goods," to get an order. How is your line advertised ? Are your goods advertised by your house in the newspapers of this city where the customers of your trade will read about them ? If they are, you may be sure your concern has done its level best to make business for your friends behind the counter. If they are not, be careful what you promise. One way to lose the good will of a merchant is to persuade him to buy a lot of "shelf dingers." Newspaper advertised goods are never "shelf dingers." . - ,

'. ( . Your Portrait a remembrance Mother will appreciate on "her" day.

I - 722 MAIN ST RICHMOND WO I

store. It is inexpensive and never j I I fails to do the work. Adv. J r,vr;:,-,-zrz3 reeds lszLZEsasszi refd's em' I j

A Sellers Kitchen Cabinet Saves Time, Energy and Needless Steps Why do you spend so many weary hours in your kitchen and take so many needless stepswhen this boon of all busy housewives the Sellers Kitchen Cabinet will Bave you all this kitchen drudgery? There is a place in it for every utensil ani all are within arm'B reach. No needless steps to take, no time wasted, everything right at your finger tips. This week we are making a special display of all Sellers Kitchen Cabinets including every model and every size. Just a small deposit delivers one of these labor-saving devices to your own door, and if you are not perfectly satisfied, we will take it back and refund your money in full. Only $1.00 Weekly Pays For It.

Id

RICHMOND ,E 310TH & MAINE IV' i