The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1867-06-13
The CrOps.

age of good luck, the prospects are that
the soil in Monroe will supply all the
breads!uffs needed for the consumption OF
our people. OF corn no judgment can
yet be formed. The long continued rains
of the spring delayed planting, and this
crop may be short; but with prudent
and thorough tillaSe we
should have no fears but that our corn
cribs, when the harvest is gathered, will
groan under the burden OF the golden
grain. And what is true Of Monroe coun-
ty, is true, also, of the rest of the coun
try. The whole breadth of our land is
rejoicing over the prospect of abundance,
and the speedy return of a season of rea-
sonable prices, when the poor mans dol
lar will spread his board with plenty
The press in all quarters give tongue to
the insurance of the prospect, and the
signs of the times, potent because of the
source from whence they spring, attest its
more tnan propaDlllty
In view of the prospects ahead, the
markets all over the country are becom-
ing seriously affected for the better. In
Chicago grains of all kinds, commencing
with wheat and ending with corn, have
fallen from sixty to forty cents on the
bushel. Flour too has taken retrograde
step, and is less to-day, by two dollars and
fifty cents per barrel, than it was two
weeks ago, and, per consequence, specu
lators are getting short Of means and
breaking up altogether, or assigning those
means for compromise with creditors
all in. view of the 2,5G0,000 bushels Of
old grain on hand in that city and neigh
borhood, and of the abundance promised
in the coming crops. In New York, also,
and Philadelphia, and, indeed in all the
great business marts of the country, the
same result is being experienced. For
two weeks the decline in breadstuffs has
been steady but sure, until the quotations
of Saturday last show decline of from
one dollar to one dollar and twenty-five
cents per barrel on wheat -four, for the
week ending on that day, and cores
ponding decline in all the cereals, aud in
the fours which are made from them
showing in the aggregate, since the de-
cline commenced, from dollar and sew
enty FIVE to two dollars and fifty cents loss
to spectators, but gain to consumers.-
And the decline must still keep going on.
q three weeks the crops of tie Southern
wheat belts, where the grain has never
given greater promise, and where money
is needed, will be thrown upon the mar
ket; and in five or six weeks the product
of the Northern fields will demand share
of the enormohs prices which will yet
prevail, even after further decline of a
dollar or more. The result of this com
bination of the two sections against the
public purse, cannot end otherwise than
in the production of cheaper bread than
we have enjoyed for years.
While this state of things exists abroad,
and with the bright promise of rich
harvest here at home, is it not little sin
gular that we Of Stroudsburg and, indeed
the whole consuming class of Monroe
county, as Jet, have experienced little or
nothing of the good effect of cheaper
prices for the necessaries Of life? We
pay within very small fraction for wheat
| -four, what we did when that article was
at its highest in the city markets; and
pay, too, frstclass price for what is in.
variably sold in those markets as a third
or fourth rate article; We pay too at the
rate of nine dollars and eighty cents PEI
barrel for rye -four, some times good
some times Indifferent, and some times
hardly fit for hog feed, when the best
quality of -four sells in the city markets
for eight dollars per barrel; and of the
product of all the grains, whether -four
meal or feed, our prices are head and
shou lders above those which rule the
city markets-so far ahead that an enter
prising merchant, having the interest Of
his customers half as much at heart as he
has bis own, could easily import them
from the city, pay charges Of transporta
ton, sell them at prices from ten to
twelve per cent. less than we are paying
and still make money. Take the article
Of buckwheat flour as an example: con.
sumers here were charged from four to four
and half dollars per hundred for the arti.
Gle during all last winter, while it was stub
born aud notorious fact that the parties
who were aSkino these prices here were