Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 March 1885 — THE CROPS. [ARTICLE]

THE CROPS.

Agricultural Department Statistics Regarding Wheat and Corn—Prospects. (Washington telegram.] The report of consumption and distribution of com and wheat from statistical returns of the Department of Agriculture shows 37J per cent, of the last crop of com remaining in farmers’ hands, against 33 per'cent. March 1, 1884. The supply in farmers’ hands last March was 512,000’,000 bushels; the remainder now is about 675,000,000. The stock in the Middle States is 29,000,000, against 22,000,000 last March. In the South the proportion is the same as last year, 41.6 per cent., but the quantity is 145,000,000 bushels, ag inst 138,000,000. The proportion in the West is 36.7 instead of 30.7, and the quantity amounts to 490,000;J)00 bushels, or 144,000,000 bushels more than the stock last March. Two years ago the stock remaining at the same date was 585,000,000 bushels, or 36.3 per cent of the crop of 1,617,000,000. The amount shipped is a few millions less than last year. The exports equal 28,000,000 bushels, against 32,000,000 at same dite in 1884, and commercial receipts at Western markets are also less, the full Eastern crop reducing slightly the demand, notwithstanding the reduction in price. The proportion of merchantable corn is very large—B7 per cent, against an average of 80 per cent for a period of years and 60 per cent for last year. The wheat reported in farmers’ hands is about 33 per cent of the cro bushels, or 50,000,000 bushels more than the stock last March, when the crop was less by 92,000,000 bushels. There has been a slightly freer use of wheat for bread, and a little of the poorer quality has been fed to stock. The stock March 1, 1883, was 28.5 per cent of the previous crop, or 143,000.000 bushels, and that of March 1, 1882, was 98,000,000 bushels. The quality is reported above the average in every Western State except Illinois and Missouri and in nearly all the Atlantic and Gulf Coast States. o