The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-10-12
CONDITION OF TRADE.
Bradsreets Reports That the Prospects
 Are in Excellent Form.

Bradstreets Reports That the Prospects
 Are in Excellent Form.
 New York, Oct. 11.-Bradstreets this week says: Cooler weather has stimu- lated a seasonable demand for staple dry goods, millinery and clo o.hing and jobbers in these lines in all parts of the country feel the improVem m. Rel atively most gain has been made at the south, where an improvement is reported in almost all lines. Interior merchants are placing more l'bera or ders than for several years and larger distributing centres report sales of goods to the cotton belt and collections therefrom exceptionally free.
 The more unfavorable features are found in disappointment at the modera- tion with which wheat is exp )rted from week to week, the reported weakness in pig iron and steel billets and in the competition suffered by domestic wooden manufacturers from ab, oad but an examination of these con Htions in- dicates if reports of the size of the wheat crop and of wheat socks car ried over are expected average weekly exports from this country, if kept up to the end of the crop yea, will ex- haust the amount of wheat available for shipment abroad. The weakness of pig iron and steel billets n western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio seems to be speculative, because no large con- tracts have been taken at the fur ! ' is added that large manuf lcrurers have orders for months ahead and that a large contract for Bessemer pig iron or for steel billets could not he placed at figures nominally ruling, which is corroborated by the stiffness 6f quota tions.
 Among conspicuous decreases in pri- ces this week may be grouped Indian corn, live cattle and hogs, pork and lard, all of which are explained by the unprecedentedly large crcp of corn this year. A lower price for sole leather reflects competition With the leather combination and has had no influence on prices of leathsr generally. Coffee is lower on a report hat Brazil has raised the largest crop of coffee in it's history.
 In addition to practi2a .ly unchanged prices for wool and lumber there are advances for cotton goods cotton, wheat, wheat flour, oats, refined sugar, anthracite coal and turper tine. Throughout the west cooler weather has caused general improvement among jobbers in, staples, which is most con- spicuous in Chicago, St. Louis and Kansas City. Iowa farlne $ gre rot shipping produce freely, which tends to check business somewhat at distrib- uting points in that ctate. The heavy business done by St. Paul, Minneapolis and Duluth jobbers is not likely to be rivalled until country stocks gre broken. On the Pacific coas: general business is moderately Favorable with improvement especially specified at Se- attle. Cargoes of tea and silk from Hong Kong and Yokohoma aggregatir g 10000 tons, have arrived at Tacoma. California reports the vtn-lge there the best for years, At Por.llnd ger eral trade is fair, with demand for dry goods and furniture m )st active.
 The bank clearings this week is favorable. The total for six days end ing with October 10 is $l.145, ,OO0, 600, three-fourths of 1 per cent. more than last week, 23 per cent. more than in the same week in 1894 and 26 per cent. larger than in the second week of Oc- tober in the panic year 1893. As com pared with the corresponding period of 1892 this weeks clearings are 8 per cent. smaller and with the like total in 1891 per cent smaller. Total gross earrings of 11S railroads embracing 9S,- 800 miles of road aggregate $4955. GAS for September, an increase over Septem- ber, 1894, of 46 per cent, as against a gain of only 1.6 per cent. in August this year over last. Two-thirds of all the roads reporting show increases, Increases are most numerous and per centages of gain largest among the granger and southern roads.
 The business failures throughout the United States number 263 this week against 23S in the week year ago. On- ly a fairly active business is reported from Toronto. but the outlook is prom ising. There is a fair demand for dry goods. groceries and hardware at Mon- treal and farm produce in the prov- ince of Quebec is moving more rapidly. At Quebec City the shoe trade is quiet and dry goods jobbers report business slow. Some improvement is reported from Newfoundland. but this is offset by the low price of codfish. the catch having been very heavy. The potato crop on Prince Edward Island is of ex- ceptionaIly good quality, but the de- mand has fallen off. Total bank clear ings at Winnipeg. Hamilton, Toronto. Montreal and Halifax amount to s22.- 46O 900 this week, about per cent. more than in the like week year ago.
 The number of failures reported from Canada this week is 54 as compared with g in the week year ago.