Huntsville gazette., 1885-05-30
A TIMELY TOPIC,

Tie Outlook for the Worlds Supply of
Breadstuffs Not So Gloomy as Some OF
the Croakers Would Have Us BeIieve-A
Glimpse All Along the Line.
New YORK, May 25.-In the present
depressed condition of all branches of
business, the crop prospects, of
paramount interest at all times,
acquire an additional interest, and
the reports Of damage to our winter
wheat caused considerable alarm
throughout the country. Both the official
and the amateur statisticians are con-
standy figuring out how big will be our
shortage in winter wheat, and, if we are
to believe advertisements, we might
think that we shant have bushel to
spare this year. OF course most of the
! statisticians daoble in the grain market,
and probably get up the figures to
suit their books, so that their
/ statements can not be implicitly
relied upon. That the winter wheat has
! been I'M ured can not be questioned; but
the extent Of the injury can certainly
not be figured out at present; and the
season having been backward all over the
world, it remains to be seen what Mother
Nature will do in the next month or two
toward re-estabishing natural state of
affairs. n any case, the accumulation of
wheat all over the world is so large that
there is not the slightest danger that hu-
manity will run short of bread or even
have to pay more for it. The best proof
of this is that, alarming reports not
withstanding, the price Of wheat in our
leading markets is keeping steadily down
! Il Il oil fol,
reports of shortages in wheat in other
countries.
In the last two or three weeks num-
bers of telegrams have insinuated that
the prospects of the crops in Europe are
just as bad as they are here, and that
India and Australia have suffered almost
as much as Europe. OF course all this
was published for the purpose of put
ting breadstuffs up. But here are facts
gathered fIom the best financial and COM
mercial articles Of the London press:
In India bountiful wheat harvest has
already been gathered in.
In Australia the yield is far above the
average.
New Zealand was visited by rain
storms in the middle of the harvest, and
has thus partially lost the advantage of
an extra fine crop.
In Great Britain the dry weather of
April began to be threatening, but the
frequent showers which have set in since
seem to have allayed all the apprehen-
siOns OF the farmers in regard to hay, the
prospect of which seems to have been
particularly discouraging. AS is the
case in this country, the season is
about month backward in England; but
the agriculturistS say that the showers of
May prove to have been Just as beneficial
as those which should have come in
April. All that seems to be wanted is
warm weather for six or eight weeks,
and if the predictions of weather pro-
phets, both here and abroad, are worth
anything, the world is going to have it
very warm indeed. 1t appears from re-
ports that there is not to-day a single
crop in Great Britain which is
not in promising condition.
The wheat crop has looked
well all through the winter and spring,
being none the worse for backwardness.
1t is everywhere a full plant of healthy
color and well over the ground. Accord
ing to the Daily Nelos, of London 'even
farmers who, as rule do not take
sanguine view of crop prospects, gener-
ally admit that they have seldom seen SO
fine promise of bounteous harvest"
The dry April seems to have affected
the south of Russia as it did Great
Britain; but, according to the st. Peters
burg papers, showers came to the rescue,
and the grain growers, who at one time
showed a disposition to keep the old crops
back, began freely to sell it again. It
seems, therefore, that in no part of the
globe need workingmen apprehend an
advance in the price of bread and if
bread goes down, it will drag down with
it the price of all the other articles of
food, make workingmen all the better off,
and ultimately revive the manufacturing
and industrial interests.
All the talk about the farmers suffering
from the fall in the price of grain is nom
sense. To begin with, when wheat drags
other commodities down, farmers get
more of them in exchange for it, and then
they can easily change from year to year
their system of culture. There is no
earthly reason why American farmers
should insist upon increasing their pro-
duction of wheat when they see that New
Zealand, Austria, India or Russia can un-
dersell them in the markets of the world.
The point is to knock out of the American
farmers head the obsolete idea that this
country is the only granary in the world.
Our corn will always find an Increasing
demand. With the exception of Russia,
and the Danubian region, we are the
only producers of it. But wheat is grown
everywhere.