The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-06-13
The Harvest PrOspects-MOre Cheering
Accounts.

The Harvest PrOspects-MOre Cheering
From the Times.
Nine -tenths of all the reports received at
the Agricultural Department during the past
month agree as to the favorable prospects for
the coming harvest. Never, according to the
Commissioners summing up, has there been
SO general an expression of encouragement.
From the West and South the returns are
especially promising, with the exception of
an occasional district in the higher latitudes,
where the winter wheat was exposed to the
sharp and biting frosts of February and
March. Many of the correspondents of the
Department promise wheat crop double that
of last year.
If there is any reliance to be placed upon
these reports-and they are certainly borne
out by the accounts that come to us through
our exchanges-it can hardly be possible for
the grain spectators to keep prices from tum-
bling fast and heavily. They have been feel
ing the downward pressure more or less for the
last ten days.. But at the opening of the mar
ket this week there was a strong effort to get
the figures up to the standard of the cold
spring months-the northeasteTly storms of
Saturday and Sunday being favorable to COM
binations against rhe consumer. Purchasers,
recent fall in prices began, and their being
obliged again to come into market to supply
the demands for actual consumption, has tenn
porarily inspired holders with the notion of an
advance. This was felt both on Monday and
yesterday; and 1t need not be wondered at if
the same state of things continues for few
days or perhaps weeks longer. All depends
or pretty nearly depends, on the sunshine we
get for the next fifteen days. Consumers may
in a measure regulate their purchases by that
weather-gauge. There is no dispute whatever
as to the large breadth of ground sown, espe-
cially in the South and Southwest. There can
hardly be reasonable doubt that, south of
the Ohio and the Potomac, the danger of a
failure either as to wheat or corn is past.
But the full assurance of abundance is yet
wanting.
How little the price of gold has had to do
with the high quotations for breadstuffs during
the past year, may be readily seen by turning
back to our market reports of dates preceding
the war and comparing them with the figures
when the war was at its height, and gold had
appreciated so and 100 per cent. For the six
years from 1856 to 1861 inclusive, when our
paper currency was at par, the average price
! of flour at this season of the year was 5'33.
During the two first years of the war the ave-
rage was scarcely greater, only $3.50, although
in May, 1868, gold had risen to $50. In May,
1864, the quotation for flour was about $40
| July was quoted as high as $50. Thus, with
the one dollar greenback rated at little more
than 40 cents in coin, we were actually paying
| $3.50 less per barrel for flour than we have
been paying for common kinds during this
spring, with gold at 1876.
The greater part of this vast difference is,
! of course, only referable to the deficiency of
last years. harvest and to the lateness of the
| present spring, at once delaying the opening
of navigation and throwing doubt for the
time upon the harvest prospects in most of
the Middle and Northern States. So much of
the rise as is not traceable to either of these
causes is due to the combinations existing
among dealers, and to the holding back of
many of the wealthier class of farmers in ex-
peotation of famine prices before midsummer
Some of the latter have already got bit far
worse than they bargained for.
In view of all the reports now before the
country, official and unofficial, it does appear
to be safe enough for consumers to lay in no
more than they actually need for immediate
use. The weather must become suddenly and
alarmingly bad-much worse than we have
had it-if the growing crop does not far ex-
ceed in quantity and quality that of 1866.
| Is q Summer Session OF Congress