Washington sentinel. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1856, 1855-08-07
From the Richmond Examiner.
prospeets orthe price, OF wheat.


Ii is becoming palmer and palmer every day
that the large estimates Of the wheat crop OF the
United States with which the newspaper and
market reports have been teeming for several
weeks past have been premature and exaggerated.
The housewives Of Change have been counting
their chickens before they were Matched. The
harvest is not yet ended in all parts OF the coun-
try, and in those districts in which il is over, the
farmers have been too much g in the grass with
their growing crops, after the heavy rains, to
attend to threshing out their wheat They have
not yet ascertained the amount OF their own
crops, and it is very certain that their friends in
New York and Baltimore, who have estimated
for them, have drawn on their imaginations for
their figures.
Ii is not fact that the crops have been univer-
sally good in the United States. We know that
in Virginia they have not been so, and the news
papers from various portions OF the country are
announcing the same truth OF other wheat grow
ing regions. In the region OF the Genesee wheat
in New York, the scrop has been materially in
jured and curtaied by rains in the midst of har-
vest and in other large sections OF country, espe-
cially the Western Reserve of Ohio, the crop has
been as much short of an average one as in west
ern New York and in the James River and Val
ley districts of Virginia.
Nevertheless, we are willing to acknowledge
that our present crop will reach upwards of one
hundred and fifty millions of bushels, which is
from fifteen to twenty five per cent. larger than
the average figure for preceding years. We arc
willing to concede likewise that the abundance of
our other crops of grain and edibles will enable
us to spare more wheat for expectation from the
present crop than we have been able to spare be-
fore-say twenty-five or thirty millions of bushels,
against twelve to fifteen in preceding years. We
will admit that after deducting from this surplus
our expectations to other portions of the world,
we shall be able to send to Western Europe egh-
teen or twenty millions of bushels of the present
crop, against only some five, sent to that portion
of the world, Of former crops. Yet after all
these extravagant allowances, how far short are
our eighteen or twenty millions Of expectations
to Western Europe, of making up for the ordi-
nary fifty millions of bushels of importations from
Russia and Dantzic shut off by the war; We
have already given our readers the opinion OF
Mr.. Kettell in regard to European wants. Since
then we learn from the american Farmer, that
George Peabody, esq.,, the eminent American
banker, of England, has given the most earnest
assurances to his correspondents in the United
States that all the grain that can be spared in
this country will be required in Europe during
the coming year.
We cannot conceive how anybody Of ordinary
intelligence can harbor the thought for a moment
that the prices of wheat can seriously and per-
manently decline during any reasonable period
We do not pin our faith to any particular figure,
or presume to advise producers what prices to
ask refuse; but we firmly and confidently con-
tend that prices must continue to range within
the neighborhood of two dollars throughout the
year IF they should fall below that rate whilst
the bulk of it is in farmers hand, these will see
it spring very suddenly to the high figures when
the European stocks begin to feel the effects of
the shutting Off of the Russian supplies, and
when the spectators shall have control of the
markets
We believe that the recent declines in Balt-
more and New York have been the result of
looking exclusively to facts on this side Of the
ocean, and, either through gross ignorance, or
still grosser knavery, takiug no thought of the
compensating condition of things in Europe. Let
the farmer, however act upon his own judgment,
and rely neither upon editors, SPECTATORS nor
foreign bulletions too implicitly.