The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-01-16
fllsek for Satisfactory Returns
s. Farmers Is Poor.
/, o.,rsr PRICE IN THREE YEARS.
!. 3, II Freights and Absence OF
-.xtens Makes Gloomy Prospect
~ Southwestern Growers
ss,,ty -ssven Cents All They Can
~ Loans VIII Soon Reach Ma
s..,tv Ana Take All That Rcmains

s -, values are at the lowest ebb
.1s.,s Il several years, and the outlook Is
s.sxens a 10 give almost no encourage
~ q farmers that they will obtain the
~ ~ which they are holding their
.s- II = even considered that there
"A 4. s steady decline for the next two
& n 49, months, and that 10 cents q bushei
49, IN be lost within that time. wheat
Sss~ hringS 81 cents bushei az the ware
\ 1sssae esst Of the mountains. II II drops
y ~ erected BY some, u VIII 80 20 Dut ny
. rers than Is cents before spring Is tar
s1Sanced. !.
I 70 market are many, though they are
Ess1 10 the common one OF war In the
SsInpdnes. which required the use OF so
.S.v vessels as transports, and the South
fS,irAn trouble, which has taken more OF
- Ssritish bottoms. All this has resulted
~ rreat advance In freights, without
zsstssnondinR greater demand for wheat.
sSsrs 4 no indication that breadstuffs may
"a s. delivered to the insular possessions
4 Great Britain without difficulty. Tho
ms demand In South Africa cannot
~ much effect on market quotations:
Isv wheat closed in Chicago yesterday
Il ~ cents, q decline from q cents tne
~ tier Christmas. and In San Francisco
n nnok q GENITAL, with Csc for
ss6A amounting in the last case to
Ser fhan 50 cents bushel. The,
ssofafionp here were 80 cents for No.
~. and 81 cents for No. bluestem, the
ovset ofFer in the last three years. About
csrts less IL offered east Of the noun
n IL expectation that there would be
a ADVANCE the farmers Of the Northwest
Eye been holding their grain firmly, al-
ut uniformly refusing to accept less
lb1u % cents This was so at the begin
Slng Of the delivery season last fall.
IN. etill they seld out for 50 cents. hop
IN AGAINST hope for q revival. They had
I'm 50 used to nothing less than 80 cents
ihat they could not understand how condl-
tons could fail to improve.
nv result has been that practically only
haN Of the 1899 crop has been disposed of.
which was only what the farmers had TO
oel, and that In innumerable instances the
growers have borrowed money on stored
handsome margin when the market recov-
red It Is estimated that $1,000, 900 was
baned tn this manner by banks. grain
Dealers and others. and all on the mimi
nun basis Of 30 cents q bushel.
A. there is only q slight margin left
ey0 this, and the prices are steadily de-
dining, II Is believed that within the next
two or three weeks millions of bushels will
+ made, and when that price is reached
he product becomes the property of the
naner. Some say that the quantity of
Washington wheat held In this manner ap-
rsacheD 100000 bushelA
BOTTOMS are moving more freely than
they did In the fall. and as result there
! poticed q slight drop in charter rates,
nights on April charters that two or three
nenths ago were AS Cd being quoted at 37s
II but I'll the vessels moving now are under
- advanced rates, and as the new char
TN are on long future deliveries, 1t will
y months before there will be resulting
beaent here. In fact. practically all the
ptn under cargo shipment Is that bought
two ef three months ago, when export
a tdck several hundred thousand BUSH
~ Nobody is buying any wheat to speak
q now because the farmers will not sell,
lnd because the buyers are afraid of los
ng. and the mills are running on old
nock
The visible supply In the United States is
atimated at 60,000.000 bushels, against 90
400 at the same time in 1899, which is
not good augury for higher prices. Be-
pnning with January /, the farmers are
taxed It the rate of 10 cents ton a month
. bushel