Birmingham state herald., 1896-08-01
CROP PROSPECTS GOOD YET
Although Drouth in Louisiana and Arkansas
 Has Compe' q CurtaiIment of Orders.
IRON AND g FEEL AT A STANDSTLL
Pig Is k-Mfddlemen Undersen the Bile 2 'ol-Defaulted Liabilities for
 snty-Three Days of July
 lm Were s12,oee, ,4s1.

New York, July 31.-R. G. Dun & Co.
 dnltheir weekly review of trade tomorrow will say:
 Business conditions have clearly im- proved, though business has not It is a torpid season and better prospects have little effect as yet. Gold exports have been stopped and foreign advices are
 more promising as respects an early and large demand for American products.
 The operations of foreigners in the stock
 market have reflected little beyond the
 troubles of speculators at the London
 settlements and varying degrees of igno-
 rance about American affairs. The pros-
 pect for large crops of cotton and corn is still excellent and neither movement of wheat nor markets give countenance Ho low estimates. Several weeks of extremely slack de- mand for cotton goods have brought a further reduction in print cloths to 2.44 cents, instead of the advance expected in consequence of the stoppage of 4,000,- 900 spindles, but prints are selling more freely while brown and bleached goods are dull, except for export kinds. The woolen mills do not gain, light weights opening to 71A per cent lower in
 price than last year, and sales of wool
 now reported are less than quarter of a
 full weeks consumption.
 The boot and shoe industry has se-
 cured slight further advances from the
 lowest point in broganS and calf boots
 and shoes, but new orders are scanty,
 the more because the permanence of the
 advance is questioned. Leather is stub bornly held without change in prices, and in some grades Is really scarce, al- though manufacturers are buying only for actual needs, but hides have turned downward sharply at Chicago, declining per cent for the weeks heavy accumu- lations.
 The iron industry is helped but little by the settlement which gives puddlers OF the Ohio region 50 cents advance in wages, because the demand Is so slight that few mills can run and the associa- tion price Is 1.2 cents, while steel bars are now being sold at ss-than 1.05 cents. | A ray of encouragement comes to rail mills, two considerable sales having been made for 10000 tons to New England road and 10, 900 by the new Premier Steel company of Indianapolis. But other | wise sales are small. Trade in wire nails has been so light that even tho l trifiing allotment of 65,Ooo kegs Tor July | is supposed to have exceeded sales ana | the association Is in session In Boston to | consider the matter The billet pool has been constantly undersold by middlemen, and the open hearth steel men had a ses. sion yesterday at which reduction Of prices was discussed Many contracts for structural works are held back, ana there Is very little done in that line, ana
 orders for plates and pipe are scarce. It is not strange that pig Is weak, Bessemer
 being $11.50 at Pittsburg and southern
 somewhat lower at the east
 The volume of domestic trade, judging
 from exchanges, has been small even for
 midsummer.
 been considerable in magnitude, and in
 twenty-three days of July defaulted lia-
 bities were $12,069, ,481, against $S,392,727
 in twenty-five days last year.
 tl.- .ly hat the United States. against 261 last year, and 40 in Canada, against 2S last year. Bradstreet's Report.
 New York, July 31.-Bradstreets to- morrow will say:
 Political uncertainty continues to ex- | ert an unfavorable effect on trade and dullness in industrial and commercial l lines is of more than usual midsummer proportions. Mercantile credits are more 1 closely scanned and Tn many instances shortened. Country merchants in north- | ern Louisiana and southern Arkansas | have cancelled orders for fall delivery | in some cases, owing to the effect on | trade of the drouth there
 | The industrial situation is less favora- | ble Among manufacturers of iron and | steel 1t is regarded as serious in some | lines, owing to the surprising falling on | in demand. Curtailment Of production | of cotton fabrics continues, yet Tall pur- l chaSeS or prints are or Sf1dll NOluine dhu | fail to sustain quotations. More com- | plaint of the condition of trade Is notice l able at Baltimore. with a less favorable | trade among jobbers, because country merchants have delayed purchases, and | at Charleston for similar reasons Busi- | ness has been restricted at Augusta and | Louisville because of the long continued | intense heat, and at Chicago ana St: | Louis smaller orders and an unexpected depression prove the rule. Favorable ad- ranafUed from Omaha where trade shows improvement because of re- cent rains, which have assured good crops throughout Nebraska, and from Galveston, where tobbers report im- provement, due to the favorable crop outlook.
 General trade throughout the Canadian dominion remains quiet and dull. Cotton and wooden mills throughout the do- minion are running on short time, yet stocks are accommodating. There are thirty-seven business failures reported from the Canadian dominion this week, six more than last week.