Evening journal., 1901-01-01
PROFITABLE YEAR
TOR FARMERS
Trade Conditions Of Last
Year Of Century
Have Been Satisfactory 10 Merchant
and Manufacturers as Well as
to Planters

New York, Jan. 1.-Dun's review, IT,
It's summary reviewing the business o.
the year just closed. says regarding
the leading markets.
Conditions In iron and steel durine
1880 We're much more sound than IL
the preceding year, when speculation
was rife and prices Inflated far beyond
the bounds Of reason. The statistics
OF the weekly capacity Of furnaces Ia
blast show that the highest point On
record Was reached Feb. 1. while there
was little diminutiOn during the next
few months. But. with the collapse oi
speculation during the spring and real
lzati0n OF the fact that operations had
beea Oserdone. there came steady re-
duotion I'm output. From 296 furnaces
ln blast Feb. ], there followed a con-
llnual shutting down until but POI were
Ina operation on Nov. / f., and the weekly
production decreased S2,7lO tons. Even
al this rapld rate OF declining output,
stocks accumulated rapidly, and ON
Oct the top was reached at 67O, ,534
tons. Business conditions were salts
factory. however. and demand expand
ed while exports of finished products
grew very heavy when prices reached
n level that made competition possible
with British and German producers.
Manufactured articles have moved
along similar lines. Quotations of iron
and steel products at the beginning Of
the wear were little below the level
prevailing 3 years previous, and the
fall was almost uninterrupted until Oc-
,oher when the average was but 63.6S
por cent OF the figure prevailing Jan. /,
1887
II Is difficult 10 select any branch Of
this industry as being pushed harder
than another Railway supplies Of al!
kinds have sold very freely, and the
market Is flooded with urgent orders
for freight cars Structural material,
particularly for bridges and ships, has
been IN much better demand than sup
ply. Steel rails were reduced from last
years price OF S35 TO s26. but It was
an open secret that the former figure
had only been nomination months prior
to the official change in September.
Tin bounded up from 25A cents at
the opening TO 30 cents in July, and
then gradually lost all the gain. But
during the last week there was recov-
cry to 27h. Copper has done nothing
startling variations remaining within
NAN MAAAf VI AAAltt~AOMAlIn VI a NNMls
The year 1900 opened with favorable
conditions prevailing in nearly every
branch OF the dry goods trade The
homo demand continued good for the
first three months and then fell away
until by June the market had lapsed
into pronounced dullness and from a
steady upward course in prices began
TO gradually decline again. The ar
..N Hfa.s4 a. .I.I Ia
wooen goods stocks began to accumu-
late again and their course up TO the
close Of the year has shown pronounced
weakness In both mems wear fabrics
and dress goods, with the result that
tho cain in prices made last year and
ia the early part Of this has been lost
Ia many directions. and whore any re-
tanned at all Is of limited extent.
A sudden demand from China for
heavy brown cottons In May. the first
purchase made for that market in sew
eral months was unfortunately check
ed by the outbreak Of the Boxer rising
and since then there has been an entire
suspension Of buying for that country
In September another stimulus was
given to cotton gocta lv q rapid ad-
vance in raw material which followed
/ lllt AfNlNtaNNn NlNNaNti anu bNOIl NIOI
| predictions. Prices resumed their up.
ward course. and the market ruled
strong again until the end Of October
when there was another lull In the de.
mand Stocks had, however, been well
cleaned UP.
The closing wear OF the century was
remarkably satisfactory one for far.
mers and plante. Notwithstanding the
fact that some ons harvested
smaller crops than il preceding years
| While the south prod1 ed less cotton
than I'm the two previous record break.
ing seasons, prices were the highest In
ten years. and the net profits made OF
plantations was enormous Sprinf
wheat states lost much grain. but Kan.
sas and other large winter wheat grow
ers made big crops. and the averag,
price was high. In fact, the cereal!
were all abnormally advanced unit
there occurred a natural loss I'm ex
ports, so that Russian ports were abl,
TO secure much foreign trade that hat
belonged to American producers. Corr
was put up to within a fraction OF 81
cents here, and speculative manipula
ton forced the Chicago price still high
! er. These operations had q naturall,
deleterious effect on expectation. an,
foreign surplus countries reaped mucl
of the benefit from excessively inflated