Prev | Current Page 446 | Next

Streeter, John Williams

"The Fat of the Land The Story of an American Farm"

I shall probably
buy again when the market price pleases me, for I have a horror of
running short; but I shall not sell a bushel, though prices jump to the
sky.
I have seen the time when my corn and oats would have brought four times
as much as I paid for them, but they were not for sale. They are the raw
material, to be made up in my factory, and they are worth as much to me
at twenty cents a bushel as at eighty cents. What would one think of the
manager of a silk-thread factory who sold his raw silk, just because it
had advanced in price? Silk thread would advance in proportion, and how
does the manager know that he can replace his silk when needed, even at
the advanced price?
When corn went to eighty cents a bushel, hogs sold for $8.25 a hundred,
and my twenty-cent corn made pork just as fast as eighty-cent corn would
have done, and a great deal cheaper.
Once I sold some timothy hay, but it was to "discount the season," just
as I bought grain.
On July 18, 1901, a tremendous rain and wind storm beat down about forty
acres of oats beyond recovery.


Pages:
434 435 436 437 438 439 440 441 442 443 444 445 446 447 448 449 450 451 452 453 454 455 456 457 458