It was a flock of vultures descending upon a common prey--the commission merchant, the elevator combine, the mixing-house ring, the banks, the warehouse men, the labouring man, and, above all, the railroad.

Steadily the Liverpool buyers cut and cut and cut.

Everything, every element of the world's markets, tended to force down the price to the lowest possible figure at which it could be profitably farmed.

Now it was down to eighty-seven.
It was at that figure the crop had sold that year; and to think that the Governor had seen wheat at two dollars and five cents in the year of the Turko-Russian War! He turned back to the house after giving Phelps final directions, gloomy, disheartened, his hands deep in his pockets, wondering what was to be the outcome.

So narrow had the margin of profit shrunk that a dry season meant bankruptcy to the smaller farmers throughout all the valley.