Litchfield enquirer., 1855-07-05
Correspondence Of the Enquirer.
WATERFOWL. Owls. June 81, 1865.


Mr.. EDITOR 1t is not my intention to
give you In this communication any spicy
notes OF travel or to indulge in any lofty
flights of imagination, poetic or otherwise
but to jot down few observations on a
subject at present of peculiar interest, which
as circulating medium throughout the
Great West for the last six months, have
been able to make. Most of your readers
can speak feelingly upon the exhorbitant
prices of all descriptions of grain, and es-
pecially of wheat and its product flour, in
the eastern markets for the past year-and
doubtless many speculations have existed
as to the cause of this unusual state of
things. The general rule of trade is that
supply and demand regulate the price, and
assuming tina; % be sound doctrine suppose
the inference has been that there was an
! actual scarcity OF breadstutfs in the country.
Now of course there are no more bushels
of grain in the country at two dollars and a
half per bushel than at seventy five cents or
a doliar-but generally when the price is
very high it acts as a stimulus to the pro-
Queer or holder to sell Immediately, and in
, this way markets are overstocked and the
price declines. A strange conviction seems
to have Possessed the minds of the mass
Of grain growers i'll the Yves, relative to the
probable demand for a year or two to come,
and they nearly all believe or profess to
believe that present prices will continue
during this year at least, and that an increase
even is more than misunderstanding their
opinonnpon the foreign requirements during
the continuance of the war. l have had
opportunity to learn the real state of the
case so far as quantity is concerned, and
my convictions are that very large surplus
Of wheat and corn is at this time in first
hands, and much of it is two years old. In
Iowa any quantity of corn can be bought for
twenty-five to thirty-three cents per bushel
according to distance from TIE river, and the
amount in the cribs is enormous. Wheat
also in immense quantities is still in the
stack, and some of it has been there nearly
two years. Jus, so it is in Illinois and this
State, and 30 effort is making to bring it
forward, One farmer little back of kenosha
has fifteen hundred bushels of wheat on
hand and farmer in Illinois near Henry
told me few days since that himself and
brothers had seven thousand bushels of corn,
a part OF it two years old He is making
no effort to sell, and this is just the case
with vast numbers Of the producers. There
seems TO be Il species Of jnfdtuation prevail
ing amongahem, and this appears the more
strange. as they are now just upon the adj
vent OF the most overwhelming crop the
country ever saw. am certain that no such
prospect as the present, has ever before ex-
listed this period OF the year. The breadth
sown is enormous, and the standing grain
looks uniformly Well. There is, UNDER
stand, an exception to this. in a portion of
Nlchlgan--the fly having injured the crop
badly. have not been in that State recent
Iy, and cannot speak from observation. l
am of the opinion that prices must inevitably
recede soon. Bread or no bread has been
the question long enough. Let US hope that
a be!ler time is coming soon in this respect.
Very truly Yours, N.