Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 March 1888 — Brazil’s Coffee Crop. [ARTICLE]

Brazil’s Coffee Crop.

Ths House of Congress has its appropriation! clothes on, and the way it is scattering the surplus in public buildings is a caution. Tariff bills in profusion will soon occupy the attention of the House. The Democratic measure reduces the tariff on sugar 20 to 25 per cent., and removes it entirely from wool. The full text of the measure appear in these coin ms as soon as it is perfected. .I.'W. 1 ' - ■ • It seems that the country has not been extremely liberal to the Mt. Vernon sufferers, although no small amount of cash has been contributed. One of the peculiarities of the original appeal for aid was the re quest that nothing but money be eent. The cause of this strange request will probably be surmised, although not given. To t his can probably be tracsd the comparatively ■mall contributions. If the appeal bad ... been for rid, in whatever form, no doubt the response would have been far more liberal.

Those who live outside the region in which there have been developments of natural gas, can not easily realize the revolution brought about by its discovery and introduction.' The displacement of coal by gas in one county of Pennsylvania per day is estimated at 20,000 tons, which is equivalent to .500,000,000 cubic feet of gas. One of the Philadelphia companies’ capsc.ty is 545,000,000 feet daily. Tbq effect on manufccmres, such as steel mills, ironpipe mills, blast furnaces, glass manufacture, brass wire, fire brick and e ther well known enterprises has been to increase production 100 to 300 per cent. The fact is that so enormous and startling has been the effect of preceding discoveries for the last fifty years that an industrial revolution may now go on almost unnoticed. The News and Courier, of Charleston, has a lively discussion of the free dog question that would read well in half the States in the Union. It seems that a proposition was before the South Carolina Legislature to tax all dogs SI, and it was defeated. “These vermin cost the State 53,000,000 a year, and we have no doubt a careful investigation will demonstrate this fact. But for these worthless animals South Carolina could, and probably would, soon become one of the leading wool producing States in the Union. The farmer saves $1 on each cur he has, and loses hundreds of dollars on the sheep and wool he has not, and cn the food and clothing he consequently has to buy.” Exactly. Where dogs are more thought of than sheep, there can be no wool industry. Ninety-nine dogs out of a hundred are a nuisance, a loss, a pest, a danger, and not worth a tax of fl a year.

Rio Nevi. Five months of our coffee crop year have elapsed, and as we approach the end of the calendar year the position of Brazil’s great product becomes more interesting. For the five months the total clearances, foreign, do not reach 700,000 bags, and our stock on the 30th ult was 289,000 bags, On June 30 the stock was estimated to be 190,000 bags; considering this and adding receipts for the five months, or about 790,000 bags, we have only distributed including local consumption, about 660,000 bags for five monts, or an avers ge of very little over 130,000 bags per month. Tais is so very small that the statistical position of coffee must be considered favorable, and that consuming markets would appear to be using up their former accumulations of stock would seem clear, could any estimate be made as to the progress of adulteration and sub stitu'ion abroad. Lacking this, it is impossible to say what the real position is. Another feature of the market is that if the lowest estimate of the present crop be accepted there must have remained about 1,000,000 bags for shipment on the 30th of November, or an average supply of 140,000 bags per month for the remaining seven months of the crop year. We incline to believe this estimate is too low. and that we are to receive new coffees early in 1883 is generally accepted in the trade. We thus have our stock of 289,000 bags and from 1,000,000 to 1,250,000, or say a total supply of 1500,090 bags, for the supply of the world for about six months. This seems moderate also, but does not lead ' to a belief in anything like famine prices. The whole position strengthens our belief that prices abroad are justi fied by statistics, and that if advance is likely to be resisted by consumers any sharp decline will be followed by a considerable reaction.