Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1895-05-25
A MARKED IMPROVEMENT
Found in Business Throughout the Country
by Bradstreets' Correspondents.

New York, May 24-Bradstreet, TO-
morrow, will say: The moderate reaction
in the stock market, last week, caused
primarily by the repeated frosts and re-
ports of severe damage to the cereal crops
and other farm produce, was followed
only in part by corresponding check tc
the movement in general trade
Our special Geographic advices fur.
nished the most striking evidences of the
broadening demand for staples yet pro-
duced No one of the larger grain states
confirms the reports of severe damage &c
wheat and corn with which the exchanges
have abounded Tho main loss from
frosts seems to have been to fruit and veg
etables, the prices of which are up again
The most bullish feature of the wheat
situation lies in the announced restriction
of Argentine's Russian exports, except the
ability of nearly all the leading producers
and the shorter supplies of importing
countries. Few believe that wheat has
touched it's highest point on this wave,
although % cents bushel above the low.
est since the panic Exports of wheat
from the United States, both coasts and
Montreal, this week, amount to 2,754, 0OC
bushels. against 2,310,000 in the third
week Of May, 1894, and 3, 1866 900 in the
same week of 1898.
The free silver coinage craze appears
to have encountered many ugly facts,
notably the increase in the worlds pro
duction of gold, a falling off in the out
put of silver, and ali but universal ad-
vance in the prices of staple products,
extending now over more than two
months.
This week. records of advance are con
spicuous as ever, and include hides, shoes,
leather, bessemer pig iron. steel biliets,
nails, bar iron, copper, zinc, wheat. In.
dian corn, oats, pork, lard, wheat, flour,
coffee, cotton, naval stores, potatoes.
poultry, butter-22 in all, and against
this record one finds practically firm mar
kets for prints, lumber, sugar, live stock,
with decrease almost alone for petro-
leum.
The tone of the iron and steel market
is strongest since the depression of 1894
Inquiry has been stimulated in nearly
all the departments, with the voluntary
advances Of wages in many lines, and
quotations for future delivery being
sharply upward
Wooden manufacturers are working on
old orders and some refuse to stock up
with raw materials, and as the prices at
the interior are above the parity with
those at scapoard, Western views are the
manufacturers may be short of supplies
to meet the fall contracts.
improvement in demand, this week.
reported by dealers in drugs, paints, glass,
lumber. petroleum. hardware and flour.
The other significant trade features, this
week, are the sending out of travelling
statesmen by prominent jobblng houses,
very general improvement in mercantile
collections, tendency on the part of the
retailers principally in the West) to de-
part frcin the hand-to-mouth policy Of
the past two years, and the fact that at
some larger cities credits are not scanned
as freely as year ago. and banks are in-
cllned to take cognizance Of this In dis
counting paper.
The relatively grsatest improvement in
demand and prices centers about Chicago,
st. Louis, S.. Paul. Minneapolis. Detroit,
Milwaukee, in the West and Northwest,
and about Savannah. Augusta Memphis,
Galvt ston, at the South.
On the Pacific coast grains and fruit