The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1855-07-31

stump speakers that our farmers-our "hOnest
yeomanry"-are not only the most indepen-
dent of all classes of our people, but the hap
pest They ought to be; but we never yet
have known them to be better satisfied than
"other folks" either with the seasons - their
crops. Whatever may be the abundance or the
quality of the returns of their harvests, there
is always plentiful supply of croakers among
them. There is always screw loose some
where-too little or too much rain, or the wee
vii, or the rust, or some heavy drawback to
the poor consumer, when least expected.
We had supposed however, that 80 beuntiful
were the products Of the present year, grain,
roots and fruits, beef and pork, eggs and chick
ems, bread and butter, milk and honey, that
the croakers would be dumb. But we were mis-
taken. The Richmond lVa) Examiner, in an
article of several columns, devoted to ''wheat,"
attempts to show that the New YoRR HERALD
has made On over sanguine estimate of the
crop Of the United States for 1S55-that we
shall have very little, indeed, to spare for ex-
portation; but that, being in the interest Of the
buying classes, it is our policy to magnify the
crop in order to bring down prices We are
further informed that 'times are not IS they
used to be in the trade circles, when prices
were regulated by the laws of supply snd de.
mand, and when honest merchants pioEsly as
cribed fluctuations to Divine agency. In orr
day the Almighty has been relieved of the
trouble of regulating the prices of provision
stats Prices of homely substances, like wheat,
oats, barley and maize, are now regulated by
the generous fraternity whose dainty fingers
used only to touch fancy stocks and the
like delectable subjects of speculation"
In other words, the farmers have become the
victims of shsrpers and gamblers, and we have
been only playing adroisly into the hands Of
these cheralieys d'Sndustrie. Our Virginia
cotemporary, therefore, admonishes the sturdy
yeomanry not to be frightened by the cry of
the SPECTATORS Of d great excess of wheat but
to hold Oh, and beware alike "of the newspa-
pers and the foreign news"
We have no objection to all this. We are
not in the league Of the buying classes; we
have nothing to do with hucksters and specu-
lators, whose policy it certainly is to make all
the money out Of the producers that they Gao.
II the farmers can meet their current obliga-
tions without hurrying all their wheat to mar
ket, they had better do so. A gIut in the
market always reduces the price. We fear,
however, from the shortness OF the wheat and
all other crops last year, that our producers
have fallen little behndhand, and that too
many, perhaps, will be compelled to sell at
once to settle their outstanding liabilities. The
effect OF this may be an unhealthy reduction Of
the price Of wheat in our seaport cities for
time, and perhaps rise again when these first
excessive supplies shall have been exhausted.
We think that it would be to the advantage of
producers and consumers if this state of things
could be avoided; and we would also advise
our farmers to look into the matter and shape
their course Of action for themselves. Large
as our crops of all kinds of the present year
may be, we are not in position to waste them
or squander them away. 1t is to these crops
that we all look for relief from that fearful
pressure under which our financial, CONNER
cial manufacturing and all other classes have
been struggling since the collapse Of the flmsy
prosperity bubble of 1858.
ever, is that we shall have little or no wheat
for expectation this year; and thus he makes
out his CASE
Everybody knows that almost the only fac wheats
that cons into the of the world not arown in
the COUNTRIES consuming them except from the Ameri.
can ports are derived from Dantzic-wtnin stones
throw OF tie Russian border, and from Odessa aud its
hboring por ts the Black Sea-whn the actual
limits Of the Russian Empire The impoi alton of wheat
ints f. alone from these two qusrters exclusive
O early 1S47 and is now dou btless largely
upwards CT To- COO GOO bushels The Italian states aud
other grain importing countries bordering on the Med
te.raneap, which get their supplies ordinarily from
Ooessa and the Black sea- must look elsewhere
supplies and will ind no other wheats suitable for
king their msccarop aud vermcelli, that ths
cut oil from the Odessa but the fine wheats Of Amsrca
probably only those OF Virginia. The tttal
exports OF wheat from the Russian ports Of the Black
Sea, closed by 2S S72 bushels in 1s47
These are the supplies shut off from Western
Europs,and locked up in Southern Russia by
the siege Of Sebastopol; and next comes the
loss from the blockade of the Baltic, which is
put down as follows
The expert from DaI tic (which derives its gupples
from Poland and other Russian dominions.) aud Ar:h-
angel in the same ysar, $3.50 600 busnes to say
nothing Of the exports from Riga and St. Petersburg
which could not have teen less than 1000 90 mora.
Here, thep is prand total expiration Of wheat for
year as early ls47 from Russian ports OF at least
es 0t0 entirely cut off by the war this OF uai-
teh OF wleats wlch are the very best known in the
markets, The like Of which only be obtained in
quantity rom this side OF the water. We have not III.
c'a figures for later years but have doubt that be-
fore the war the Russian and Dsntzc expectation of
wheat reached 30 000 t0oof bushels per annum Have
any indications Jet that Of the yield IN
Western Eurooe and above that oil ordinary years
is at all CONNIE nsurate with this immense curtament
in the quantities OF supply. to aay nothing of the i'm
possibility of the soft wheats of Western Con inents
Europe answering the wants of trace whatever be the
excess over ordinary production.
According to these figures we have here
deficiency to supply, resulting from the war
with Russia, Of fifty millions of bushels Of
wheat, to The markets Of Western and Sou thern
Europe. And what are our capacities? We
have estimated our wheat crop Of the present
year, throughout the Union, at something over
one hundred and sixty eight millions of bush
els. Our Virginia contemporary, with dspo-
sition to be extremely liberal, grants an aggre-
gate of one hundred and sixty millions; and