Year: 1872

lHere uhy nave Deen IN Ine past n
time when Spectator could approx


mate with some accuracy 10 the exact
amount of wheat, corn, or pork which
could be thrown upon the market, but


that does not exist now. The area OF
cultivated land is so much greater aud


the crops so much more varied that no


such estimate can now he made. The


Western pc pie have learned lesson


from the experience of the past, and


they now so vary the good crops of their


faims that most of them are no longer


absolutely dependent upon the one grain,
corn, or wheat There is point of price


beyond which the farmer thinks it good
economy to eat some other food and sell


this or that article. There is point in
price beyond which the farmers knows


1t is useless for him to hold his product.
Then the multiplication OF rail- Dads en-


ables the farmers rapidly to concentrate


their salable articles at any one point


where the price may be highest. The
great wheat corner of Chicago was an
instance of these facts. Never before
was speculation gotten up with so little
foresight. The earth may be said to
have groaned with the burden OF grain
and fruits she was bringing forth, and
the very men engaged in thus wild OPP
Grafton are among those who boast that
more than one.fifth of the railroads of
the United States G. nler ut Chicago. 1t
may truly be said that from the four
quarters of the earth the golden grain
came pouring into that city as the price
per bushel touched 81. So ; for wheat was
even shipped back from Buffalo, and
the vast resources of the railroads be-
came wonderfully apparent. 1t is stated
rs an instance of this that one of these


great lines brought to the city in one
day 1,600 carloads of grain. 1t would
seem that with such experience and such
resources plainly evident, the Chicago
operators would be slow to enter tAe field
Of speculation in any agricultural pro-
duct, but We have from there the iHtelli
gence that they are now engaged in the
effort to corner pork.


The prospective success Of this new
corner is based upon the fact that Chi
cago do-iands mess pork to be Of a cer-
tain standard that there are now only
about l24, GOO barrels in the city, and
that all in Cincinnati is controlled by
three firms, and that these two stocks
are the large proportion of what is in
this country. The true standard for
judging the prospects of the success cf
my corner is the certainty of a demand.
In this light the present Chicago corner
is even more lily planned than the one so
lately collapsed. The corn crop through
out the whole country is very large, and
in most sections the wild mast is excel
lent. The patato bug has been, com
pared with last year, almost harmless to
that great food crop; the production Of
molasses from various sources has in
creased the time OF the year when
work ceases is at hand and the number
of hogs in the country has increased over
1000 in the last year. There is no othe-
of corn to market rs when condense d
into fat of hog sides, hence with
abundant corp 1t can readily be seen that
the farmers of the West will rapidly turn
their corn into hog flesh, and in view Of
cheap corn and hiGh priced pork will
spare from their farm stock few more
than originally intended for this purpose.


This will make "A plethora Of pork sup
ply; but it may be contended that it
will not be put up at Chicago standard,
or rather that the rules of the clique
will contend tLat it is not of prime quail
ity. On this point, firstly, St. Louis will
buy if Chicago does not, and thence the
American market will be supplied |
Aglln, BUYERS may choose to mike a
standard of their own and not take as a
Linaity tue dictum of the Chicago clique.
In a,y event we can see for this lew
combination no better fate than that met |
" the ATTEMPTED monoplizers of wheat,
md possibly in its elimination an injury |
o the commercial interests of Chicago |
md the transfernent of some of her |
rade to her rival on the Mississippi
" Y. Paper.