The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-12 00:00:00

STATE OF TRADE.

BIRMINGTIA.II, Sept. 10.—No abatement in the demand
for Birmingham goods has as yet been perceived in conse-
quence of the additional turn of the screw in the Thread-
needle-street parlour. The trade is in the main of a steady
character, very free from speculation; and India, the
foreign market to which a good deal of unsound consign-
ment has previously taken place, is just now the most de-
pressed. The South American and Mexican markets are
steadily improving, and the West India trade is good. The
home market from one end of the British Isles to the other
presents a very satisfactory appearance, and the results of
the harvest, which so much exceed the gloomy anticipa-
tions of two months ago, are putting people in good spirits.
The iron trade is about the same as last reported ; a good
demand for plates, sheets, and angle and T iron; with an
improvement for hoops and bars. The miners' strike, how-
ever, is extending. Every morning large bands of men on
strike congregate about the approaches to the mines where
the men are at work, and use every possible means to pre-
vent them going down the shafts. These efforts are in many
cases successful, and the number not at work has increased.
The area of the strike is also being extended, and an expo-
dificn to the opposite extremity of the South Staffordshire
coal field, on Channock Chase, has been organised with the
view of stopping the supplies from that quarter. At least
two iron works have been closed in consequence, and if the
strike goes on and extends, more will follow. The men on
strike, however, are suffering greatly, and this week they
have not received anything from the union funds.

•
MANCHESTER, Sept. 10.—It is a long time since we have
had so depressed and gloomy a feeling as that which has
possessed the yarn and cloth market during the closing days
of the present week. The fact is as amazing as it is incom-
prehensible. It is true that during the last few weeks cot-
ton has been inactive at Liverpool; very large imports
have taken place, and tkat a great deal of cotton (500,000
bales) are on the ocean, consigned to this market, but, on
the other side, there is the undeniable fact that the stocks of
manufactured goods in nearly all the foreign markets, and
especially in the principal ones, have been a good deal less-
ened, and in some cases exhausted, so that only a little time
was needed to cause the peace rumours to blow over, and to
give merchants time to gain confidence ere large purchases
for shipment must probably have been entered upon. But
the mischief begun at such an inopportune moment by the
peace rumours, has been greatly aggravated by the almost
minimum rate of interest to 9 per cent. The consequance
has been that the prices of cotton have declined Id to 2FI
per lb., with a difficulty to sell at that; while in yarns and
manufactured goods the market has been almost paralysed.
Buyers can scarcely be induced to make offers at any price,
and where they have, such offers have mostly meant a:ruin-
ous sacrifice to the producer. Generally speaking a good
deal of firmness exists among spinners and manufacturers,
and few would pm haps make a concession more than pro-
portioned to the drop in the raw material (varying in Id to
21d per lb.), which in itself is ruinous, but of course in cases
like the present there are always people unreasonably
alarmed, though generally there is no panic feeling, and
sales are said to have been made in one or two instances at
4d to 5d per lb decline from the rates of last week. Many
spinners acs manufacturers are this week talking of
stopping their mills or lessening their production as the
only means of stopping the fall of prices and curtailing
the ruinous loss to which they aro likely to be exposed
from selling their goods, made of the dearest cotton that
has been bought since the cotton famine commenced,
under present prospects. There is no doubt that many
millollners have been induced to resume working for
little or no better reason than that their neighbours were
doing so, and from hearing that some of them had done
tolerably well notwithstanding the famine, thus increasing
the competiti .n for cotton and running up prices higher
than ever, when, according to the natural laws of trade,
they should have been lower, and the lesson, if not too
severe, may be a salutary one, derived from the present
semi-panic, unfounded and unreasonable, as many people
believe the rumours and causes of alarm which have led to
it to be.

LEEDS, Sept. 10.—There has been a fair sprinkling of
merchants in the cloth halls this morning, and consider-
able business was done in several kinds of goods,
the aggregate the market was far from being though
one.oodin
Buyers have been on the look out principally a g
for tweeds,
especialy those in dark shades and of strong makes. Thick
meltons also have been in good demand, and of these there
was a large clearance. Heavy cotton warp cloths have also
been good to dispose of, such as pilots in drab shades, and
presidents, beavers, and reversibles keep up a good position.
Considering the advance in the rate of discount, the woollen
trade generally is in a satisfactory condition, and this is
owing to the fact that, as we foretold last week would soon
be the case, the small country houses have begun to supply
themselves with their winter stocks. Many buyers, who
generally operate extensively, have been here during the
week, but they have shown more than ordinary supineness,
even taking into consideration that this is a mid-season
period, and the secret of their passiveness is the dearness of
money. Their proceedings cause stocks to look more formid-
able than should be the case, and merchants accordingly act
with considerable caution. Much to the gratification of
many holders of such fabrics a spirited inquiry has of late
gone on after seal skins, which have long been passed by
almost all purchasers. Considerable quantities of thin
diagonals have been warehoused this week. Black unions
of the finer sort are not quite so saleable, but superfine
broads keep up well in everybody's esteem, and realise high
prices, because they are not to be met with in any abund-
ance.
BIOADFORD, Sept. 13.—There is now a better disposition
to do business in worsted pieces than existed at the begin-
ning of the week. It has not become much developed, and
is not likely to be, owing to the tightness of money. For
home purposes very few goods are taken, and the foreigners
have only taken some trifling parcels ; most of the conti-
nental and American representatives being absent. Manu-
facturers are rather taken aback that the piece department
should be so flAt, and there are cases in which machinery
is being stopped rather than that the millowners should be
led into over production. The demand for worsted yarns
is merely nominal, and prices are uncertain both of single
and other yarns. Orders are very rare indeed, The price
of wool is tending downwards owing to the heavy stocks
in local staplers' hands; but the prospect of a better har-
vest th in had been expected, and the fact that things are
looking more more hopeful in America, must prevent easier
terms becoming a permanent fact.

HUDDERSFIELD, Sept. 10.—Business is quiet among the
merchants, but manufacturers are well employed; though
for being so they are not much indebted to a present flourish-
ing trade, but rather to preparation for :he next season.
There have only been a few buyers for large houses look-
ing round, but several operating on a smaller scale have
been doing business rather briskly. The desire to buy
goods is not, however, general among that class. The best
qualities and styles of fancies are in request, and the same
may be said with regard to the heavier descriptions of goods
Cloths st medium price have been selling, but no great bulk
has been disposed of. There is still a slack inquiry for low
woollens and unions. The consumpticn of the raw mate-
rial has declined, owing to some of the large spinners
having secured good stocks.
HALIFAX, Sept. 10.—Generally thoro is slackness in the
woollen trade of this district. Orders aro fast expiring, and
no new ones come in to replace them. There is the least
possible business doing in grenappes, =mate, lastings, and
tweeds. The only decided sign of activity is among the
manufacturers of serges, For carpets there is a very slug-
gish inquiry, but machinery is kept at work upon orders
which date from some time back. The same may be said
with respect to damasks, and the cotton mills are running
short time in the expectation that a decline in the price of
the staple will soon take place. An excellent trade is doing
among the silk spinners, but there are so few now orders to
encourage the exertions of the worsted yarn spinners that
it is likely, if they could secure °Hers by so doing, they
would relax a little of their high terms of the past. The
sales of wool have been stopped almost altogether by the
enhancel dearness of money.
NoTTINGIIAM, Sept. 10.—During the past week there
has not been much doing in taco goods, This season of the
year is usually a quiet one, and upon the whole there has
been about an average amount of business doing. Plain
cotton nets are a very slow sale, and there is no improve-
ment in the fancy department. Silk meehlins and silk
quilliugs meet a dull demand, and there is barely as much
doing in black silk laces and narrow edging., used for trim,
wings. There have been a few buyers in the market during
the week, but no large purchases have been made. Menu •
facturers are in , It arses printing to order, and all descrip-
tions of stock aro kept down. There is not much alterati,,n
in the hosiery trade. A few foreign orders are in course of
execution, and a little is doing for the home market. Stocks

are light, and all goods are being made to order. Yarns
hold firm, at very high rates.
LEICESTER, Sept. 10,--The hosiery trade remains in an
active state, and during the week there has been quite an
average amount of business doing at the warehouses. In
the rural districts also the workpeople are fully employed.
The wool market is quiet and prices remain high. There
is a tolerable demand for yarns, which are realising ex treme
rates, and spinners are well engaged.

The Harvest and Appearance of the Crops.

(From the Liverpool Melcury)
Since the appearance of our last article on this subject
the extraordinary drought which had prevailed for upwards
of four months in the southern and midland counties had
been brought to a close by abundant refreshing showers of
rain. Already the whole aspect of the couutry is fresh and
green, and if we should have a continuance of the present
mild, moist weather during the month of September and
the earlier part of October the root crops wi' 1 turn out better
than was expected, and the meadcws and pastures will soon
be well covered with pass. In the south and east of Eng-
land the grain crops are all secured in excellent condition,
and promise at all events a fair return, especially of wheat,
The principal anxie,y is new about grass and other kinds
of food for cattle and sheep during the autumn and winter
months. That they will be scarce it cannot be doubted,
notwithstanding the present most seasonable rains, but there
is still time for a considerable improvement even in that
respect. The following notes relate chiefly to the appear-
ance of the root, grass, hop, and fruit crops is the southern
counties, and especially in the counties of Surrey, Kent, and
Essex,

Starting from London towards the hop gardens of Kent,
we find the train crowded with women and children, and a
few men, going down into the country to the hop picking.
At this season upwards of 10,000 of the poorer part of the
population of London turn out and encamp for weeks among
the fertile and romantic hills of Kent, Surrey, and Sussex,
to assist in picking hips. They take their cooking vessels
with them, and large loaves of bread, and beg or buy any-
thing else that they require down in the country, sleeping
in barns, hop drying henses, malt houses, or in the hop fields
on warm dry nights. It is a yearly " out "to thousands
of poor families, in which they leave the dull and noisome
alleys of London to breathe the pure air of the Kentish
hills for three weeks or a month, and pick up as much
money as will pay their rents, in the light and pleasant
occupation of hop picking. At this season of the year the
thinly-scattered population of the hop-growing districts
is quite insufficient to secure the crops. The human hand
alone can gather the delicate fruit or flower of the hop bine,
just as the hand only can pick the bean of the coffee tree and
wool of the cotton plant. No machinery, and scarcely any
tool or implement, is of use in any part of the operation of
hop picking. All must be done by the hand, and done in a
few days, or the whole result of the year's labour is lost.
The result is that there is a great demand for hop pickers at
this time, and that the whole district is overrun with swarms
of men, women, and children during this month, when the
hop is ripe. The principal hop districts have hitherto been
Maidstone and Canterbury, in Kent—Farnham, in Surrey
—Ticehurst, and the other Hurste, in Sussex—lpswich, in
Suffolk--East Thetford, in Nottinghamshire—and several
districts in Worcestershire and Herefordshire. Kent and
Surrey are, however, in an especial manner the hop counties
of England, both on account of the great quantity and the
fine quality of the hops grown in their chalky and loamy
soils. Now that the hop duty has been repealed, which
tended to confine the cultivation of hops to a few districts,
they will probably be grown in some other districts,
though the hop plant requires a very choice soil and climate
to bring it to perfection, by giving it its finest flavour.
The hop harvest of the present year promises to be very
good, The bines are well grown and thickly covered with
hops, and both the leaves and the plants are of a healthy
colour, the leaves being of a dark shining green, and the hops
of a light yellowish green. We did not see a single hop
ground in a ride of 150 miles in which there was not a good
show of hops. In point of beauty the hop grounds of Eng-
land at this season far surpass the vineyards of France and
the Rhine, and are only surpassed by the festooned vine,
yards of Italy.

In that charming part of Surrey which lies between
Herns-hill and Sydenham, the recent rains have greatly
improved the appearance of the fields and gardens. The
burnt-up look of thefields is gone, and young fresh grass is
springing up amongst the withered herbage. All the corn
is in sock, not a single sheaf remaining in the fields, and
the young clovers are coming up in the stubbles where the
land is laid down for a clover crop. The stubbles in which
grain is to be succeeded by roots are many of them already
broken up, ready for the winter frosts. The soil is a deep
brown-coloured marl, but becomes lighter in colour on ap-
proaching the chalk near Sydenham. The whole district is
well wooded with noble forest trees, chiefly elms and oaks.
Turning eastward into Kent the soil is still a strong brown
loam, very favourable to the growth of wheat and grass.
Tho wheat is all safe in the stack. The grass land shows
the effect of the rains in a crop of young grass springing- up
amongst the dry herbage, and sweetening for the sheep and
cat tle, which are very numerous and fine. Beyond Bromley
we come to the first hop-gardens, and find them afterwards
all through Kent. The plant is very tall and green, and
thickly covered with clusters of hops, which aro beginning to
change colour and assume a slight shade of yellowish green,
In this neighbourhood and all through Kent the mangold
crops are very healthy, and promise a good return. This
valuable root is very extensively grown both in Kent and
Essex for cattle and sheep, and does much better in dry
seasons like the present than either Swedish or yellow tur-
nips. The field cabbage is also extensively cultivated, and
is doing well this year. The turnips are thin and patchy.
Large quantities of coppice wood are grown in this district
for hop poles, for which there is a very great demand. The
shoots are cut down every seven or eight years, only such
trees being grown as send cut fresh shoots as long as the
tree lives.
At the Sevenoaks Junction hundreds of hop-gatherers
leave the train, forming a merry company, chiefly of women
and
children, and spread themselves over the country
in
search of work, going southwards towards tho chalk an
cretaceous soils, most favourable to the growth of hops.
The soil about the Sevenoaks Junction is somewhat strong,
laanrdg
e fieldsmore suitable
of
po tat re
s cornanamangold
and grass thanare
lookingfor hops.
rMany y
ell.
At Farmingham-road marks of heavy rain during the
previous night. To the north, as far as the Thames, a
great range of wheat land laid out in large fields, with
farm-houses surrounded by corn-stalks ; to the south, chalky
hills and downs, well cultivated and wooded, and with hop
p. antations in every she', ered nook. All the mangold and
potato• crops good ; most of the turnip crops poor. The
second crops of clover much better than in the eastern
counties.

From Rochester to Canterbury the road—still on the rich,
brown corn lands of Kent, but with the chalk close on the
right hand—is so near that the products of both kinds of
soil can be seen. On the stronger soil a succession of
orchards, the tree 3 covered with ripe apples, pears, plums,
and walnuts. Here also are the great cherry orchards, now
stripped of their fruit, and the filbert-woods covered with
ripe filberts. The corn lands stretch northward to the
Thames, and far beyond the river over the whole corn dis-
trict of Essex, so famous for its fine wheat. Only three
fields of corn unearned iu a ride of more than 100 miles,
and those three oats. Twenty corn stacks and upwards
appeared in many of the stack yards, and the farmers speak
of the oorn crops as very good this year on these strong,
retentive soils.

To the south the land rises in chalk hills, which extend
from the Medway to the North and South Forelands. The
soil light, and the crops chiefly barley, clover, and turnips
with numerous flocks of sheep. Hop plantations in all the
valleys and sheltered places. All the crops are good except
the turnips, and they improve as we approach the sea, either
from occasional showers during the dry months or the nature
of the soil.

The green valley in which Canterbury stands is fresh and
pleasant, as it always is, the meadow being kept constantly
fresh by irritation of the water of the River Stour, which
flows through the city. The hop grounds are very extensive
and productive, and all the crops, including even turnips,
look well in this well-watered neighbourhood,

The downs and valleys from Canterbury to the sea form
this year the freshest and greenest district in the south of
England. The turnip crops are generally very good, the
potato and mangold crops still better; and the grain is all
secured in excellent condition.

SPECULATION IN PIGeIRON WARRANTS.—
BROKERS' CLAIMS ON BANKRUPTS.—Important
legal discussions, in connection with the right of brokers to
claim upon bankrupt estates for losses through speculations
in pig-iron warrants, are likely to arise out of Registrar
Hill's decision in the bankruptcy of Messrs. E. Barker and
Son, of Birmingham; the Registrar having admitted the
claim, and the assignees having expressed their intention
of appealing to the Lords Justices. The grounds upon
which the proof was admitted were, that the transactions
appeared to have been bona fide sales and purchases,
and not time bargains; but is should be remem-
bered that all dealings in pig-iron warrants are
of the nature of time bargains, and that until within
the last few years this was so openly acknowledged
that, in the event of the buyer choosing to draw iron against
his warrants, he could not_require tho delivery of the par-
ticular brands and proportions represented on those war-
rants, but was bound to accept any of reputed equal quality.
The Registrar admits that no debt was duo to Messrs.
Walduck from the bankrupts at the time of the bankruptcy ;
the iron bought was never dolivexed, nor was there any
thought of delivering it, and previous payments were
simply the payments of diffirences to the bankrupts.
If differences upon speculative dealings be admitted as
debts due from bankrupt estates, it is difficult to understand
why public companies should not prove against bankrupt
shareholders for the amounts uncalled upon all shares
which they have bubteribed for.—Miffing' Atonal.

COPPER ORES.—At the Cornish ticketing on
Thursday 2,083 tone of copper ore realized £10,937 108,
Averages :—Standard, £12,1 Gs.; price per ton, £5 58. ;
produce, C. Compared with the sale on September 1 the
standard has slightly advanced, and with the corresponding
monthly sale it has advanced £1 10s. Price per unit of
produce at the sale on Thursday last, £lGs, 31d.