510 
FOREIGN MARKETS. 
WHEAT.—In the United Kingdom the month of November was favor- 
able to farm-operations till about the close of the third week, when a 
sharp spell of frost set in, but it was again succeeded by a mild temper- 
ature with genial rain. The conditions of growth for fall-wheat have on 
the whole been quite favorable, and are in striking contrast to the dis- 
astrous seed-time of 1875. The fall-sowing was completed in good 
order. Suppliesof British wheat at the country markets were small, and 
dullness the prevailing feature of the home trade, causing a declineat 
several points of 1s. per quarter for English wheat. In the absence of 
authorized inquiries by government into the yield of the crops, several 
leading statisticians have been estimating the wheat yield. The Agri- 
cultural Gazette sets down the aggregate product at between 95,070,000 
and 102,179,600 bushels; the Yorkshire Post, from 96,771,000 to 103,365,- 
000; Mr. Kains-Jackson, 98,756,000; the Farmer, 90,526,000; the Magnet, 
‘98,756,000; the Mark Lane Hapress, 92,584,000; Mr. Scott, 88,960,000, 
The average of these estimates is about 96,600,000. The population of 
the United Kingdom is estimated at 53,000,000, consuming in the aggre- 
gate about 180,000,000 bushels of wheat. This will require a foreign 
import of nearly.90,000,000 bushels. Other estimates raise the neces- 
sary import to at least 100,000,000 bushels. Changes in the British land 
system and in the conditions of cereal production are foreshadowed by 
movements already inaugurated, which will in a marked degree affect 
the future demand for foreign grain. 
Considerable anxiety has been felt in regard to the supply of present 
demands, especially in view of the falling off in the American import. 
Supplies from Russia and India were unusually large, while American 
receipts had largely fallen off, especially from Atlantic ports. But as 
the Black Sea ports will soon be closed for the winter, America is looked 
to as the main source of supply. The movement of American crops 
to the seaboard has been very slow on account of the unwillingness of 
the great railway-lines to furnish transportation at existing rates of 
tariff. This slowness of transatlantic grain movements, together with 
the chronic uneasiness growing out of the unsettled state of the eastern 
question and the liability of a general war, had kept the local grain- 
trade quite firm and had made holders very unwilling to part with their 
stocks. 
The French crop of wheat was also short, being estimated by the Bul- 
letin des Halles, of Paris, at between 85,000,000 and 90,000,000 hectoliters, 
(241,214,700 and 255,403,800 bushels.) Its value was supposed to be en- 
hanced 4 or 5 per cent. by the superior quality of the grain. Subse- 
quently the Hcho Agricole, from returns by 3,500 correspondents in all 
parts of the wheat-growing region, estimated the wheat-area of 1876 at 
16,383,540 acres, yielding 256,726,250, an average of 12.6 bushels per 
acre. This crop is somewhat larger than that of 1875, as estimated by 
M. Banal, and about two-thirds of the large crop of 1874. The domestic 
consumption is estimated by the last-named statistician at 204,322,040 
bushels, besides 39,729,480 bushels required for seed, making a total con- 
sumption of 243,051,000 bushels, which leaves but a small margin for 
export. 
The sales of English wheat during the week ending November 18 
were 48,063 quarters, at 48s. 3d. per quarter, against 48,012 quarters, at 
47s. 8d., during the corresponding week of 1875. The London averages 
