Blandford Weekly News. — 1886-03-27 (Blandford, Dorset, England)

REVIEW OF THE CORN TRADE.  Milder weather and a slight increa,e in breadstuff receipts from abroad have been sufficient to cause a decided slackening in trade. Prices have not retrograded, but advance has ceased. This is very discouraging, but holders cannot yet be said to have lost heart. It is the reserve of buyers and not the want of confidence ammg holders of foreign wheat which accounts for the present slowness of the markets. As to English wl.eat, a steady attitude of reserve on the part of farm, rs would soon send the market up half-a-crown, and probably, four shillings per quarter. The quantity of English wheat left in growers' hands is not large, yet it is the English crop which is underselling %hest importations. Were this anomaly removed, the position of the trade would be thoroughly healthy. The protracted winter has enhanced the price of vats a little, but generally speaking the winter advance on feeding stuffs has been far less than mig..t have been anticipated. Millers' offal, for instance, has recovered about 2s. 6.1. per ton since Christmas, but is still Ms. below last, year's terms. For maize only 218. to 235. is quoted wholesale, at about 3s. per bushel retaff. Tnis cheapness is the outcome of the plentiful yield in the United States, a yield which admits of the visible supply rapidly increasing at the sante time that exports are going on at a very liberal rate week after week. Leans, peas, and bailey shew very little coange. For the last-named staple there is still a small sowing demand, but this inquiry satisfied itself for the most part in the first fortnight of the month.—Farme...  The clay lands which were ploughed before the frosts set in are now working to perfection, having been assisted by the warm and gentle rainfall, and it now remains to be seen how much work can be done "after date.' This Will depend on the weather to follow; all that can be said at the present time is that the mechanical condition of the land is, as a rule, as near perfection as it possibly can be in the south-eastern counties of England. It is quite useless to speculate on the possible damage the wheats may have received from the frosts. They will tell their own tale later on. So far as we can learn the earlier sown autumn wheats are in an exceptionally favourable position at the present time, lying fiat on the ground, without loss of plant or vitality. For these we have no fear, whilst the later sown and now almost undiscernible plants may with assistance yet coins very nearly to the front. The winter season has been of unusual severity, but it has not been—from our point of view—a wheat-killing season ; wheats can stand any amount of frost—the more prolonged the safer —and it will be admitted that wet winters have killed more wheat crops than the most severe frosts on record. What can be done with spring-seeding remains to be seen. With regard to the trade, the most that can be said of it is that the week has closed with weakness, whereas it opened with some semblance of strength. The sales of English wheat noted last week were 72,519 qr. at 31s. Id., against 49,5:iliqr. at 31s. lid., in the corresponding week of last year. For the rest, there is no material change to note, exceptinz that the seed demand for good medium class barleys is now at its height, without appreciably raising values. —Mark Lane Express, March 22. CURRENT PRICES OF If turisti GRAIN AND FLOUR IN LANh. per thinner. Meat red, Nt to 33 w white 30 to 35 old 15.... Flour, per sack of 23011,., town-made, uounilut top. price Town-made whites ... 23 Seconds Household, Country households Nest makes Norfolk and other seenuilitry country makes 2 .3 Ilat•ley—Griailing,uew... 20 24 new Fuglisunew 33 44 Scotch ... .. 45 Old Ont., I osh — Scutich Rye 'ares, new ........ . Sprinz Leant Tick old Harrow sew ... 32 3, Eng. Mazntrau Pea', white  The Irish Delmmo Union has sent R 5) tali* endow of Finlay, who wee recently murdered at Woudmrd, county (; away.