THE LISTER KAYE FARMS. (con't)
wheat. He figured that in a few years he would be able to go back east
with a fortune, and did not sell his furniture but put it in storage. He
paid storage on it for four years in Montreal. It took four years to show
him that wheat growing was not an exact science but a matter of Jupiter
Pluvius and old Sol; of markets and freight rates, fluctuations, frost,
drouth [sic], hail and sometimes floods; of bumper crops and failures; of the
elements and markets, of poor selling and good selling and generally
speaking of ups and downs he was powerless to control. Although he is
hoW living in comfort in the midst of his many broad acres he has never
realised that dream of fortune under which he was to retire in a few
years to Montreal, take his furniture out of storage and live in modest
splendor and dignified leisure for the rest of his days. The way he figured
was this. Remember that money then had really about double the value
it has today. Two thousand acres of wheat, 25 bushels an acre-50,000
bushels. Fifty thousand bushels at 90c a bushel, $45,000. We have seen
that Bell of the Bell Farm figured the cost of production at $5 an acre.
Two thousand acres at $5 an acre, $10,000. Consequently $10,000 from
$45,000, net profit $35,000. Profits on four years cropping at a profit of
$35,000 per crop-$140,000. Don't you see what a glorious prospectus
could be issued without any intention to defraud on this kind of figuring?
But it was the kind of figuring that started large and small companies in
the early days and on which men with money came to this country to farm.
Bibliography follows:
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