STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 235 



WHEAT, BARLEY, FLOUR, ETC. 



WHEAT AND FLOUR. 



The year 1888 opened auspiciously for our farmers, the rainfall for the 

 month of January having been ample for all requirements in all sections 

 of the State. An amount of land considerably above the average, and 

 estimated at three million two hundred and fifty thousand acres, was 

 seeded to wheat. Influenced by brilliant crop prospects, with dull and 

 drooping markets abroad, prices in California steadily declined for the 

 first three months in the year. February passed, giving us a few show- 

 ers; March passed, giving a fair amount of rain, and on the first of April 

 the crop, while somewhat late, gave promise of an abundant harvest. The 

 month of April left a record of cloudless skies, hot weather, and parching 

 north winds that swept over the State, doing irreparable damage to the 

 young grain. The acreage destroyed by the drought of this month amounted 

 to very nearly one quarter of the total acreage seeded. About the middle 

 of April, with crop prospects growing more and more gloomy, prices of 

 wheat suddenly stiffened, and, aided by better markets abroad, shot rap- 

 idly upwards, the highest prices of the spring months being realized about 

 the middle of May. Then, with a brighter outlook for the coming harvest, 

 came a sudden reaction. June passed in a quiet and uneventual manner. 

 Then began a bull movement that has had no parallel for many years. 

 July scored an advance of 10 cents per cental, and in August prices went 

 bounding upwards, keeping pace with the excited markets of England 

 and France. During September the fluctuations were rapid and violent. 

 After the first of October values steadily declined, the close of the year 

 finding prices but little higher than they were on July first. 



The estimated outcome of the crop of wheat of 1888 is about twenty- 

 seven million seven hundred and fifty thousand bushels, as against a yield 

 of twenty-eight million eight hundred and sixty thousand bushels in 1887. 



The year 1888 can be considered as fairly prosperous for our millers, 

 although our trade with China and Japan has been quite seriously cut 

 into by Oregon. As nearly as can be estimated, two million barrels of 

 flour were turned out by the mills of this State during the year. The 

 exports show a slight increase over those of 1887, but are still considerably 

 below the exports of 1886. 



Tables will be found farther on giving the highest,' lowest, and average 

 prices during each month of the year for No. 1 white wheat spot, and also 

 tables giving the highest and lowest prices of No. 1 feed barley during 

 each month of the various options dealt in at the San Francisco Produce 

 Exchange Call Board Association. 



BARLEY. 



With the exception of a rapid advance during the month of April of 25 

 cents a cental, caused by the drought of that month, prices of feed barley 

 fluctuated within a very narrow range throughout the year. 



