Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 August 1893 — A HOPEFUL OUTLOOK. [ARTICLE]

A HOPEFUL OUTLOOK.

‘•Wait TUI the Clouds Roll By.” Don~ Sell Your Wheat—Prien will Surely Advance. The American Agriculturist’s annual review of the crop situation shows that there is a' great shortage in the world’s supply of wheat and all other crops are short. The harvest of 1893 in the United States is in many respects similar to that of three years ago, but with every prospect that home consumption and increased foreign demand will so advance values as to yield as large a net return to farmers as on the average of recent years. Indeed the review makes a distinctly encouraging exhibit in spite of the prevalent drought, though admitting that the financial stringency may interfere with the early movement of crops and have a temporarily restrictive Influence on prices. The cotton crop will be nearly the same as lastyear but will be harvested from fewer acres. The Agriculturist believes that the present dullness in American manufacturing is only temporary, there being an actual scarcity and not a surplus of nearly all staple goods. MUIS are already starting up to fil orders. Present indications point to a crop of 1,750,C00,030 bushels of corn, contrasted with 1,630,000,000 last year and over 2,000,000,000 bushels in the immenseyield of thetwoseasons previous. But unless abundant rains prevail throughout the corn belt In August, followed by mild weather, production may shrink to the 1890 crop, when we harvested less than any year for a decade, with a single exception. The reports of good rains all over Kansas between August 9 to 13 are erroneous, as in four of the largest corn growing counties not a drop fell in that time and only little patches have had enough to lay th© dust in four weeks. The out-turn will net exceed 443,000.000 bushels, according to the Agriculturist’s own reports and its interpretations of government returns, compared to 614,000030 as the averag'6 for the past two seasons and 400,000,000 bushels in 1893. Nearly 2,500,000 lesa acres were devoted to wheat than last year and the bulk of this decrease was in the surplus States, which bid fair to have 78,0t0,000 fewer bushels than last year and 125,003,000 bushels under th© surplus States’ product of 1891. Available supplies of old wheat are 40,030,000 bushels greater than twelve monnths since, but even allowing that the farmers also hold 17,000,000 bushels more old wheat now than then, the total supplies for the ensuing year are only 503,000,000 bushels, or 114,009,0(0 less than the average of the two previous crops. Our home consumption has averaged 365,030,(00 bushels annually, leaving an apparent export surplus of 135,030,000 bushels against exports last year of 192,000,003 and the season before 225,000,000. The wool clip is somewhat heavier than last year. Australia’s new clip is reduced owing to large losses the past year from drought. Imports into the United States are decreasing, but domestic trade is flat, with a prospect for an upward turn when buying begins. There is a shortage also of the livestock supply. There is an increased domestic crop of sugar, but a shortage in the world’s production of 303,l0),090 tons. There is a reduced yield of tobacco. Potatoes have felt the drought, but the yield will be nearly the same as last year. Two years ago the yield was 245,000,000 bushels; this year’s crop is estimated at 165,003,000, The conclusion is justifiable that present prices of all grains are abnormally low, as there is little evidence of our ability to spare as much wheat as Europe wants unless a forge under-consumption prevails in the United States. The hay crop is believed to represent a value to the farmers of a thousand million dollars. Corn at 45 cents a bushel comes next with a total of <735,000,003, followed by wheat valued at <3(0,000,000 if worth €0 cents a bushel, and by oats worth <185,000,000 if valued at 30 cents on the farm. Potatoes promise to net an average of 70 or 75 cents per bushel, or a total of <125,000,000. This last is about one-half the prospective value of the cotton crop of 1893, reckoned at <35 per mile.