The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1885-04-07
FIGURES ON BREAD.
CONSUMPTION OF CORN AND WHEAT,
AND STOCK ON HAND.
Five-Slxths of Last Years Corn Crop Con-
sumed at Hcme-Wheat Statistics
Foreign Exports of Grain Some
Reflections of "Rigolo.''

WASHINGTON, April 1.-THE agricultural
department has issued report on the dis
trieutioa and consumption of corn and
wheat and the quantities remaining on hand
in the several states March /. The report
shows that over 81 per cent of last years
corn crop remains in the hands of farmers,
against So per cent on March l, 1884 The
supply last year as estimated was in round
numbers 5l2, 000, 900 bushels; the remainder
now is about 625, 000, 900 bushels The stock
in the middle states is %, 600, 900 against
%, 0o00 900 last March. In the west the guam
tity amounts to 400, 100000 bushels, or Ia,
Oo9, 900 bushels more than the stock of last
March Two years ago the stock at
the same date was $4,000, 900, or
36 per cent. Of crop of 100000, 900
bushels. The winter has been hard one,
and correspondents report the consumption
Of an extra quantity of corn; the low price
also favors larger consumption than in a
similar period of the previous year. The re-
turns show that five-sixths of the corn of
this crop is held for feeding on the farm or
within the lines of the county where
grown. The previous investigation
showed distribution beyond county
lines of 314, 900 bushels; the
present makes but 29S, 900 bushels. The
proportion of matured corn which is reck-
oned as merchantable is very large, the av-
erage for the country being 50 per cent
The reported average of the crop of 1883
was only 60 per cent.
The quantity of merchantable corn is
placed at 1888, 49,, lO1 bushels, and the
quantity of Understandable at 203, 1876, ISL
The proportion of the wheat crop of 1884
still in the hands of growers is about 80 per
cent. of the CROP 169, 900, 900 bushels, or 3d.
900 900 bushels moro than the stock of last
March, when the crop was less by 90, 10000
bushel' AMI the March remainder was 49,
900, 900 bushels. There has been a slightly
freer use OF wheat for bread, and little of
the poorer quality has been fed to stock.
Tde quantity of wheat is reported
above an average IN every western state OK
cept Illinois and Missouri and in nearly all
the Atlantic and gulf states An investiga-
ton of the weight of the crop of 1884 makes
the aggregate 5l2, 76S, 800 bushels, equivalent
10 49S 545, sos bu hsls OF sixty pounds or
~. 9ls, Isl, 800 pounds. This is 5SS pounds
per bushel, against Sc. 8 for tho crop of 1888
The difference in weight is equivalent to l2,
100000 bushels of the quality of the previous
crop.
NEW YORK, April 7.-Rigolo, the Suns
Wall street man, says: In the way Of
foreign grain statistics it is instructive to
| learn that according to The Journal de St
Petersburg, the exports of wheat for Febru-
airy from all the Russian ports were over Z, 500
| 900 bushels, being almost double the exports
for tho same month of 1854 The same
official authority states that the exports for
the first two months of the year from the
port of Odessa were double those Of last
year in wheat, almost double in barley
and triple in oats On the othor hand the
exports in corn DECREASED from 8, 345 900
bushels TO about 2l5 in the same period of
time. The reason of the decrease of exports
| in that cereal is not given but the facts sug-
gsst the idea that more corn begins to be
consumed for industrial purposes at home,
as we'll as in Austria and Germany, where
| the corn goes by rail And this, of
course, implies the probability of larger
export demand for American corn This
theory is sustained by the fact that we have
been exporting corn all the winter in very
| large quantities. and that the visible supply
of our great distributing centers is given
| now as 100000 bushels, against H.
| $50 900 bushels at the same time
last year Keeping in view that no
new corn can reach the market before
| October next, it looks very much as if corn
might sell nearly as high as wheat in May
and June in cease anything unfavorable
| should influence the seeding and growing of
| that staple. To-day corn sells on an average
| at half the price of wheat Thus, cash
wheat closed on Saturday at Chicago at 76
cents, while cash corn was selling at 37s[.
| Hog products were quite weak, and every
| body in the pork-Facking trade seemed to
he selling them as fast as the market will
| sure TO strike the country in the summer
AMI that the consumption of this kind
of food will be considerably reduced
| This theory may or may not be correct
| but outsiders will do well TO keep
| away from either going long or
| short Of pork for Phil Armour may be lay
ing cholera trap merely for the sake of
creating big short interest and then squeez-
| ing it, as he has done more than once before
under other pretenses. Armour is in pork
what Deacon White is in Lackawanna, and
| the safest thing outsiders can do is severely
TO boycott the specialties of these two il
| lustrious SPECTATORS.
The crop prospects OF India do not give
any promise of higher prices for wheat COM
| ing from that country According to the
recent report of the agricultural depar tment
of India the condition of the crops all over
the country is fully up to the average,
while in the Punjaub "bumpern crop Is
anticipated.