Commercial Geography / A Book for High Schools, Commercial Courses, and Business Colleges

by Jacques W. Redway

WHEAT PRODUCTION

Much of this, especially the Pacific coast product, is sold unground, but each year an increasing amount is made into flour. The flour manufacture of the United States aggregates somewhat more than 160,000,000 barrels yearly—the output of 16,000 flour-mills; the Pillsbury mills of Minneapolis alone have a capacity of 60,000 barrels a week. In Europe the Hungarian mills and their output of Bohemian flour are the chief competitors of the United States.

WHEAT

The wheat-crop of the Pacific coast has usually been a factor by itself. On account of the absence of summer rains, the kernel is both plump and hard. After the threshing process it is sacked and stored in the fields in which it has grown.[26] Heretofore much of the sacked wheat has been shipped to European markets by the Cape Horn route, but in late years a yearly increasing amount is made into flour and sold in China, Japan, and Siberia. In 1900 nearly two million barrels were thus sent.

East of the Rocky Mountains, after the grain is harvested much of it is sold to dealers whose storage elevators[27] are scattered all over the wheat-growing region, and at all great points of shipment, such as Duluth, Minneapolis, Buffalo, and the eastern seaports. Before the grain is transferred to the elevators it is inspected and graded, and the cars which contain it are sealed. This wheat constitutes the "visible supply." All the business concerning it is transacted by means of "warehouse receipts," that have almost the currency of ready money. Banks loan money on them almost to their market value.

Under normal conditions, the cost of growing and harvesting a bushel of wheat—including interest on the land and deterioration of the machinery, etc.—is between fifty and fifty-five cents. The market price, when not affected by "corners" and other gambling transactions, usually varies between sixty-two and eighty-five cents. The difference between these figures is divided between the farmer and the "middlemen," the share of the latter being in the form of commissions and elevator charges.