The Colfax gazette. [volume] (Colfax, Wash.) 1893-1932, 1901-07-19
Money, Markets and Trade

Money, Markets and Trade.
The Oregonian announces that the
sale of the first carload of 1901 wheat
in the Pacific Northwest was reported
July 10, the date showing the season to
be about two weeks later than last
year, but fully as early as the average
for the past ten years. One carload
does not make wheat crop any more
than one swallow makes summer, but
the fact that wheat is coming to the
warehouses is a forcible reminder that
the annual distribution of gold is now
to take place in Oregon, Washington
and Idaho. The banks have made the
proper preparation for handling the
financial end of the business. and ex-
pOrters have arranged for the ships
Country merchants are making heavy
Oh ats on wholesalers for seasOnable
staples, and in all lines Of trade the ap-
preaching shipping season is making its
presence felt.
Aside from this factor in trade, there
is considerable activity in numbering,
logging, railroad buIding and other
forms of industrial enterprise Fierce
competition among the mills and high
prices for logs have materially reduced
the profits of the sawmill men,
but all OF che big plants are run
ming full time, and thus preventing any
thing like a congestion in the labor
market. SO many new warehouses are
going up throughout the wheat dis
tricts that there is demand for rough
lumber which is keeping the country
mills so busy that they are not cutting
in on the rail business of the big mills on
the coast.
There is lull in the fruit business, the
season for cherries and berries being
nearly ended, while peaches, apricots,
plums, apples, ETC.. have not yet com
menced to move. The crop of small
fruits has been large and the prices
| realized averaged higher than for sew
eral years past. The sale of one lot of
100000 pounds OF wool at Heppner, to-
gether with number of other sales OF
considerable size, indicates a pretty
active movement in that staple, con-
sidering that the selling movement has
been under way at full swing for the
past six weeks. Practically all of the
select stock has been disposed Of and
buyers are now picking up the seconds.
Receipts of California potatoes and
onions have reached their greatest pro-
portions for this season, and the Oregon
product is now Offering in quantities
which will preclude the necessity Of much
more money being sent out of the state
for either OF those products, Butter,
eggs, cheese and poultry held steady
throughout last week, and the lowest
prices of the season have undoubtedly
been passed. In groceries, the most
satisfactory change from a consumers
standpoint was a decline OF twenty cents
per hundred in sugars. Coming at a
time when large quantities of the pro-
duct are required for preserving pur-
poses, it will prove quite acceptable.
The drought and hot winds in the
| east, together with the unsatisfactory
outlook for cereals in Europe, started
the wheat market up with bound last
Friday and Saturday. For those two
days, the market gave signs of all the
widness that characterized some of the
memorable days of the Letter boom.
The close Saturday was feverish, with
slight loss compared with Friday, but
still leaving a heavy net gain over
Thursdays market. The uncertainty
aud high rates demanded for ships NAV
for time prevent local wheat men from
participating in this advance, but if the
market holds good, and there ia q
further shrinking in the American visible.
all of the strength will not be absorbed
by freights, and better prices will follow.
Crop reports for last week we're less
/ favorable than those of the preceding
week, and unquestionably considerable
damage has been suffered in certain
sections of Oregon and Washington,
Oregon being the greatest sufferer.