326 



UnitecV States, the receipts being 1,105,782 cwt. iu six mouths of 1870, 

 aud 1,156,672 cwt. iu 1871, of the respective aggregates of 2,476,216 

 and 2,114,165 cwt. The increase iu i)rices is marked, the average price 

 of flour from the United States being but a fraction less than $3 per 

 cwt. 



Although the cash receipts of our shipments of wheat and flour 

 amount to a larger sum than those of the first half of 1870, they repre- 

 sent an insignificant proportion of the value of our wheat crop. Their 

 value for the first half of the present year is $21,223,475. Even the 

 proportion exported from the great wheat mart of the West, upon which 

 foreign purchasers depend largely for supplies, is quite small — a well- 

 known fact, which is thus stated iu the Chicago Tribune of August 

 18 : "Of the vast quantities of grain that leave Chicago yearly, scarcely 

 20 per cent, of the wheat, and not 5 per cent, of the corn, finds its way 

 across the Atlantic. The rest all goes to suijply the wants of the 

 American people who live to the east of us, and is scattered, in big lots or 

 little driblets, all along the route to the sea-shore. The demand for 

 American consumi:)tion is what has built up the grain trade of this city." 



SUGAE A^D MOLASSES CEOPS OF CUBA, 1870-'71. 



We gather some facts in regard to the above interests from the Ha- 

 vana Weekly Eeport. As is generally known, the production this year 

 has been comparatively small, owing to the two hurricanes that swept 

 over the principal sugar districts of the island in October, 1870, and to 

 the drought which preceded and followed them. Cuba i^roduces nearly 

 one-third of the quantity of sugar consumed in Europe and America ; 

 hence it is quite natural that, in view of the decrease of production, 

 speculators have been operating on a large scale, causing an almost con- 

 tinuous advance of prices, much to the profit of the jilanters, who have 

 thus been partly compensated for the decrease in their crops. The 

 prices for clayed sugars No. 12, of curi-ent classes, average lOf reals per 

 arrobe, for the period from January 7 to July 15, against 8J reals per ar- 

 robe for the corresponding i^eriod of 1870, and was selling at llj to 11^ 

 reals per arrobe at the latest date named. Special sorts have sold at :i 

 to f real higher, and whites have exceeded last year's range by IJ to 2| 

 reals per arrobe. 



The total exports this year from the ten principal ports of the island 

 are equal to 1,868,300 boxes, (reducing hogsheads to boxes,) against 

 2,665,184 boxes last year. Estimating the stock remaining at 638,750 

 boxes, and the local consumption (for the whole year) at 350,000 boxes, 

 the total production of the island for the season of 1870-'71 is 2,857,050 

 boxes, against 3,818,447 boxes for the i^receding year. 



The exi)orts of molasses from the several ports of the island, to June 

 30, were 215,090 hogsheads, against 292,926 hogsheads in same period 

 of 1870. The remaining stock is not more than half the amount at same 

 date last year, when it amounted to 35,000 hogsheads. The prices for 

 clayed have advanced from 4i to 5^ reals in January to 8 to 8^ reals in 

 June, aud for muscovado from 5 to 6 reals iu January to 8^ to 9 J reals 

 in June — the average being for clayed 6^ reals, and for muscovado 6J 

 reals, against an average iu 1870 of 5| reals for clayed aud 6^ reals for 

 muscovado. 



