Year: 1867

From the New York World, April II.


To the commercial a. ell as to the gen'
eral public, the propects Of very percepti-
bic and even unusually large increase in
the wheat crop and general cereal product
during the coming season, with probable
diminution in prices proportioned 10 the
increased supply, will come with sincere
qualification. The foundation for the state
ment is the reasonable certainty of an agri-
cultural yield in the SouthScommensurate
with the capabilities of her fertile fields,
and as a result Of the labor that has been
expended upon them. The pressing neces-
sites of the Southern people have COM
PEELED the abandonment, for the present at
least, of the cultivation of the OLD staple
productions Of their section, such as cot
ton, tobacco and rice, in place of which
cereals have been planted. This will tend
to divert TO the Eastern States the ordinary
flow Of Western breadstufs southwark,
and by so much increase the supply
in this section. The anomaly that has
characterized onr market during lS66-of
a dependence for -four upon section not
less remote than California-will no longer
obtain; nor will the even greater marvel
again occur, Of sending to Liverpool for
wheat for reshipment TO New York TO sup
ply Northern consumption. The gain in
cereals, more particularly in wheat, will
not be so immediate as might be inferred
from a superficial glance, since, owing to
the unusual backwardness Of the present
season, the prospects of spring wheat are
not encouraging for either an early or
liberal yield. Yet the same causes that re-
tard that crop unite to promise a most
abundant return from the wheat sown in
the winter and, unless drought or some
other Unforeseen calamity occurs, the sup
ply of summer wheat will be unusually
abundant.


A careful examination of the causes of
the present panicky prices in hour shows
that, contrary TO the general impression it
is not to be attributed to n mania for specu-
lation, bat TO the fact that the United States
have been actually experiencing a partial
famine as respects the supply of wheat, and
that but for the large quantity sent hither
from the Pacific coast, New Workers would
to-day be paying S25, $50, and, probably,
still higher prices per barrel for -four, even
of the average brand, if not below it. The
recent rise in the price of flour, and all the
subsequent ones that have occurred, is at
tributable to this scarcity Of wheat, and the
fact until now has escaped attention and
failed to create alarm simply because the
tendency of the times is to assign the reason
for any sudden rise in prices to the preva-
lence ofspeculation engendered by an ire
deemable paper currency.


But now that better times are at hand,
the long deferred hopes of all sections for
schedule of prices consistent with the degree
of wages, and approximating to the intrin-
sic not the inflated values Of products, will
ere long, if not al once answered, be on the
speedy road TO realization.


1t is a sure indication of the approach
ing adjustment of prices to the actual
values Of articles tC which they are affixed,
that speculation, particularly for a rise, is
less frequent than it has been for long
time past. In this connection, the recent
fall in the price of butter is very signif.
cant; and, though one shadow does not
make summer, il is evident from the signs
of the times that the fictitious values fixed
upon many Of the necessaries of life are not
to hold much longer. Money is becoming
scarcer every day; and with the scarcity Of
work, as eyinced by the thousands of per-
sons who are seeking employment, and the
inability Of employers to meet the demand
for increased wages, must come depres-
sion in the high prices that have obtained
for the past four years. Happily, this de-
preston in the case of flour, as we have
shown, will result not alone from this cause,
but from an actual increase in the supply of
whpat