1909.] 



The Corn Markets in May. 



247 



Wheat. — Home-grown grain during May has averaged more than 

 forty shillings per quarter at the chief statute markets, and the mean 

 price in London shows an advance on April. The best averages have 

 been found, as a rule, in the Thames valley, at Mark Lane, in Essex, 

 Kent, and Suffolk. Mark Lane has had a most meagre supply of home- 

 grown wheat, the Essex and Suffolk wheat producing districts sending 

 up extremely little, as their local markets were bidding up to the 

 London terms. The sales at the statute markets in the west and north, 

 moreover, show that the exhaustion of the crop of 1908 is general, and 

 not confined to the south or east. The backward state of the growing 

 wheat adds to the difficulties of millers, for they cannot anticipate new 

 deliveries into their mills for the usual dates. Many country mills shut 

 down at the middle of May, and many more at Whitsuntide. This 

 will affect the supply of milling offals, and may cause local difficulty 

 in obtaining middlings and bran. 



Foreign wheat supplies have not been quite equal to the demand, 

 and stocks, which were small, are believed to be now at one of the 

 lowest figures ever recorded since the country became a large importer. 

 The Argentine ports have been contributories of a large percentage 

 of what has been received, and fortunately for our mills the wheat from 

 the River Plate shows both variety and a generally good level of 

 milling value. Hard wheat, rich in dry gluten, is grown in the 

 hotter States, while a softer, finer, and whiter type more like good 

 English is cultivated in the cooler regions, which lie between the 

 Plata estuary and the Bay of St. Matias. This mixes well with sorts 

 stronger in gluten. The price of the northern La Plata has ranged 

 from 445. to 455. 6d. per 480 lb. natural weight, that of the southern 

 sorts from 45s. to 475. per 504 lb. natural weight. It will be seen 

 that the southern product often reaches the natural weight of good 

 Kent or Norfolk grain. Russian wheat at 46s. and upwards for winter, 

 455. or thereabouts for spring, has been in more request than supply. 

 The American sorts have been in small spot supply, but with increased 

 shipments in the last fortnight of May the arrivals about midsummer 

 should be more adequate. The three chief sorts of Manitoba have 

 been in fair evidence at about 475. for No. 1, 465. for No. 2, and 455. 

 for No. 3. Shippers have sent very little inferior Manitoba, but poultry 

 owners have been eagerly inquiring for feed wheat at 405., so that 

 the idea of it not paying to ship wheat below milling grade should 

 be regarded as obsolete. The Liverpool market has had a small 

 quantity of Chilian on sale at 95. id. per cental, but London has lacked 

 this item. Durum at about 44s. per qr. has become decidedly scarce, 

 as has the winter wheat of Alberta. The total shipments of wheat for 

 May have not exceeded needs for consumption, and have fallen below 

 what had been anticipated as the result of the important rise in price in 

 April. The largest single shipper was Russia, whose exports are 

 returned at 1,561,000 qrs. A good deal of this is only very loosely 

 to be called a shipment as the figures include cross-frontier sales to the 

 German and Austro-Hungarian Empires. Consequently the quantity 

 of Russian wheat on passage is apt to appear oddly small in proportion 

 to the month's exports. North America shipped 749,000 qrs., South 

 America 1,396,000 qrs., Roumania and Bulgaria 429,000 qrs., India 



