The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-09-01

- We cannot undertake return rejected Communica
Letters to he addressed "To THE DAILY EXCHANGE
Baltimore, MARYLAND
We have never known a season when the testi-
mony was more conflicting, with respect to the |
grain crop, than it is at the present time In some
places doubts are expressed as to whether the |
wheat will he found to turn out more than half |
crop when the grain is thrashed out and subjected
to that iudisputable test--the bushel measure. |
Others, on the contrary, assert that the product |
for the whole country will show fair average, |
while there are others again who state confidently
that the crop will be full one-greater than has
been known for years. The only way in which
these contradictory opinions can be explained, is |
to take for granted that they spring from local OBJ
servaton, rather than from general views, and |
to assume that while the wheat crop has suffered
severely in section, and is pronounced some
what better in another, the yield has been remark
ably abundant in third. Such we take it. has
been the case, and we doubt very much whether it
is possible yet, to arrive at any safe conclusion
with regard to the aggregate product If, how
ever, we may place reliance upon the statements
made in the Chicago papers, whatever may be the
character of the crop in other parts of the country
the yield of wheat in the grain growing States of
the Northwest, will prove unusually large. But
tits to be remarked that the journals making this
announcement compllin that the receipts of new
wheat continue to be very light, and can only ac-
count for this fact on the theory that the farmers
are holding back their grain in the hope that
prices viii advance. But this theory strikes us as
od mi Of limited anp1;oot;on H.
number of those who are in such easy circum-
stances as TO allow of their storing away their
grain, in the expectation of selling it to better adj
vantage in the Spring, must be very few indeed
when compared with that class of producers whose
necessities compel them 10 push forward their crop
to market at The earliest possible opportunity 1t
is we'll known that, at the West and Northwest
owing to the losses incurred by speculations in wild
lands, followed by general failure of the crops
last year. there is heavy balance of Indebtedness
due by the producing classes to the country mer-
chants and by the latter to the wholesale houses
in the seaboard cities. The expectation of relief
from this burthen was based upon the incoming
crop. We scarcely imagine, therefore that
under the pressure Of creditors-who are them
selves stimulated to exerton to meet the demands
made upon them-the farmers, in those sections of
the country where the harvest is reported to have
been so bountiful, disposed to procrast-
nate the period of payment by storing away
in their granaries the only means they possess
of liquidating the claims against them, There is
certainly no reason to believe that the prices of
breadstufs can by any possibility rule very high
during the ensuing year, even though the crop
just harvested should prove no more than an aver
age one. 1t is true that the country was bare of
supplies but as the demand for export promises to
be limited, the surplus, over and above what will
be required for home consumption and to guard
against contingencies, must necessarily be con-
siderable. The dearth of money, at the West,
arising from the causes already mentioned the alb
sence of speculative spir t; the manifest decrease
in the amount of foreign immigration, and theIo-
cal drainage caused by the reports - whether
true false OF the discoveries of rich gold
placers in the Pixies Peak region must all neces-
sarily operate as an inducement to the farmers to
realize the value of their products at the earliest
opportunity. That they have been disappointed
in the hope that the prices of the early part of the
present year would be at least partially maintained
and are reluctant TO sell at the reduced rates we
can very well understand; but that they will be
constrained to seek relief by prompt sale of their
products at the best prices that can be had
no one can doubt who knows what
their exigencies are Their not having done
SO, as yet, may be very naturally ascribed to a
desire 10 ascertain to what extent the crops have
suffered in other parts of the country and what
promise is held out by the state of the crops in
Europe, for foreign demand in the Spring The
Chicago papers, while complaining bitterly of the
apparent disposition on the part of the producers
to 'hold on for rise, - estimate that the surplus
of grain and -four, which will be on hand before
next November, will approximate in value to sew
enty-fve millions of dollars, and The Democrat
draws gloomy picture of the ruinous results that
must follow the refusal of the farmers to send their
grain to market. II RELATIONSHIPS them, that unless
the crop is sold, every thing must come to a stand
STILL 'The railroads will have nothing to do:
'the merchants will fall manufactures will stop;
thousands of people will be thrown out of en-
''ployment, and season of general disaster will
OCCUR" In such melancholy anticipations we
confess we do not share. Farmers are not less
alive to what constitutes their own interest than
any other class of men. If there be the extraord
nary surplus of agricultural products this season
which some persons so confidently assert, it will
in due time, find its way to market; but
we think that the aggregate value of the grain and
flour for disposal, about November next will
be found to have been considerably overrated, and
that the calculation has been made on the basis of
certain sections of country where the harvest is
admitted to have been luxuriant one whilst
the failures in other grain growing districts
have not been taken into consideration On the
whole, we believe there is far more reason for con-
graduation than for dependency. The West and
Northwest may not indeed be able from the in
coming crops, to liquidate the whole of their in
debtedness; but they have it in their power to
sensibly Tighten the burthen they have borne so
long and so manfully. We should do them Sc
rious injustice were we TO suppose that men who
have struggled so bravely under adverse circum-
stances for the express purpose of overcoming their
endorsements, would pursue so suicidal policy
as to permit their grain ''to rot in stacks and
Charms rather than accept the rates that are now
offered, in the vain hope that by waiting I'M
til navigation opens, in the Spring, they may OBJ
tain such prices for their products as will remu-
nerate them amply for the loss of interest and for
the waste that always attends the stowage of
grain in the straw and the shrinkage of corn in the
oar