Smyrna times., 1897-07-21
The Demand for Wheat.

The Demand for Wheat.
The farmers of the great wheat grow
ing belt of the Union are feeling more
cheerful now than they have for some
years. There is an abundant crop and
present prices are higher than they
have been at this time of the year for a
long while, and the outlook is better.
The crop this year is estimated at55O,-
100000 bushels, but this is a mere
guessing, and the only value of the
guess is that it surely indicates a good
crop.
In Maryland there is no doubt that
the crop is exceptionally large. The
acreage is about the average and the
yield is far above the average Forty
bushels to the acre is not uncommon
this year in Maryland, and we hear of
crops which average thirty. bushels in
all directions.
The reason why the outlook for good |
prices is considered favorable is the |
news of short crops in Europe. India
and Australia. The latter countries |
usually contribute largely to supply |
the shortage in Western Europe. So |
far from selling a surplus this year, it
is reported that neither India nor
Australia will be able to supply bread
for themselves and that Australia is
already making heavy demands upon
the Pacific coast of the United States
for supply.
The Mark Lane Express estimates
that France will have to import this
year 100000 quarters of wheat, 49,
900, 900 bushels against 10, 900, 900 bush
els last year. The English crop is not
up to the average and the supply of
home wheat in Great Britain at this
time is nearly exhausted. Harvest
there is still several weeks off, and it
will be more than a month before the
new wheat is turned into -four. East
ern Russia has been afflicted with a
protracted drought and the Russian
crop will be short. Germany has a
good crop. In Italy, Austria, Turkey
and the Danubian provinces the yield
has been cut short by unfav orable
weather. If these reports are cor
rect, and they are taken mainley from
official scOurces, it is manifest that
there will be a good market for all the
wheat the United States can spare.
The size of our surplus is a matter of
speculation. The sharp advance of
prices some months ago, when wheat
nearley reached dollar a bushel, had
the effect of empting the granaries
upon almost every farm. There has
not been in years so general clearing
out of wheat from the farms, and the
surplus which will be carried over from
the last crop is probably nearly all
contained in the elevators, public and
private, and is what is termed sin
sight.
Assuming the approximate correct
ness of the estimate of the crop, five
hundred and fifty millions, we will be
able to spare about two hundred mil
lions for export, as we require about
three hundred and fifty million bushels
for bread and seed. This should bring
into the United States about hundred
and seventy-tive million gold dollars
from aboard or extinguish foreign debts
to that amount. The outlook for con-
tinued good prices for wheat, not tax
ing into account the manipulatiOns of
the markets by bulls and bears, is en-
couraging.
On the good price of wheat and cot
ton depends, more than upon anything
else, the prosperity of the country and
the revival of business, the mainten-
ance of sound currency conditions and
the content of the people. 1t was the
wheat and cotton exports which main
tanned the gold reserve intact and pre-
vented the continued export of gold
to England and France. With good
crop of wheat and good prices for it
the farmer can buy and can pay for
what he buys. Then the wheels in the
factories begin to revolve to supply the
the demand, the idle operatives are
summoned to work in the morning,
the coal miners must go back to their
work in the mines to supply fuel for
the motive power and the mine owners
can afford to pay the men living wages.
The outlook now is for prosperity,
and the foreign demand for wheat will
do more go restore it than all the tariff
bills that Congress can pass.
There is just now growing demand
in japan for our flour. A few years
ago it was almost nothing. This year
the exports to Eastern Asia. mainly
Japan, which has grown rich since the
war with China, will amount to a mil
lion barrels of -four, equivalent to
nearly five million bushels of wheat.
J Congress would do the people better
service by fostering this trade than by
destroying it in a senseless dispute
over Hawaii with that friendly and
progressive country. baltimore San.