211 



These are large wheat crops, and the yield per acre excellent for that country : 

 not excelled except by Great Britain with its favorable climate and high farm- 

 ing, and by Minnesota, producing, as was claimed against the returns of this 

 department, 48 bushels per acre ! ! ! 



The trade of France in wheat for a series of years, however, shows the un- 

 certainty of its crops. The following table exhibits the wheat and wheat flour 

 imports hy, and the exports of, that nation. 



Imports, pounds. Exports, pounds. 



1861 • 1, 310, 594, 768 166, 547, 360 



1862 675,863,440 238,644,896 



1863 427,826,448 293,880,608 



1864 300,149,920 376,766,992 



1865 241,423,056 744,995,280 



2, 955, 857, 632 1, 820, 835, 136 



In this series of years it will be seen that, however excellent the wheat crops 

 of France in 1863 and 1864, its importations of wheat and wheat flour exceeded 

 its exportations by 1,135,022,496 pounds during the five years above. 



The average price of wheat in the English markets is about $1 34 per bushel. 

 A reference to the prices in the preceding table shows that wheat is now selling 

 in New York at $2 55. Such a difference, being $1 21, between English and 

 American rates, discloses the fact that we cannot export wheat at this time, and 

 accounts for the statement made by the Mark Lane Express, " that shipments 

 of French flour for the United States, via Liverpool, have commenced." 



These high prices of American wheat lead us to notice the criticisms made 

 upon the retiirn of this department of the last wheat crop. We placed the deficit 

 in quality and quantity at 26,241,698 bushels in our August report, and in the 

 report for October stated that the deficit in quality was greater than in quantity, 

 and that the entire deficit was still greater than as reported in August. In 

 Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Maryland, and Delaware the average quality 

 was so low as to make certain that large portions of the wheats of these States 

 would be unfit for flour. The Chicago Journal of Commerce of April 18 says : 

 ''The current receipts of grain at Chicago are very large, but an important 

 amount of the wheat is going to Ohio and Indiana, where the crop is proving to 

 be inadequate." 



Yet, because we made a report oi facts, now fully verified, persons without 

 any knowledge of them condemned the report as untrue, as exaggerated, as 

 striking at the financial prosperity of the government, and like criticisms. In 

 this as in all other cases we have always been content to abide the decision of 

 time, and in this case, as in all others, that decision has sustained the estimates by 

 the department. 



