i9io.] 



The Corn Markets in May. 



247 



and constant demand, principally for hoeing, which several correspon- 

 dents reported as backward, and for weeding corn. The supply of 

 labour was usually sufficient, but some scarcity of day men was reported 

 in the Wisbech {Cambridgeshire) Union, the Lincoln and Sleaford (Lin- 

 colnshire) Unions, the Docking (Norfolk) Union, and in the Braintree 

 (Essex) Union. At the May hirings in Lincolnshire little change in 

 wages on the whole was reported, but in some cases men accepted 

 rather lower wages than a year ago. 



Southern and South-Western Counties. — Employment was generally 

 regular in these Counties, though a few correspondents mentioned some 

 slight interruption from rain to the employment of day labourers. 

 Hoeing, carting and spreading manure, potato planting, weeding, 

 hedging, &c, caused a fair demand for this class of labour, which was 

 invariably met by the supply. 



THE CORN MARKETS IN MAY. 

 C. Kains-Jackson. 



A decline in prices in May was not expected, for the reductions before 

 the end of April had been judged sufficient to bring seller and buyer 

 together. As May progressed the farmer, while delivering no excessive 

 quantity of old wheat, reduced his supplies of old barley and oats so 

 materially that at several leading exchanges averages could not be 

 struck. Thus the weakness of business must be assigned wholly to the 

 influence of imports. Grain from the Colonies and abroad had been 

 held with some firmness up to Easter, but the large new wheat crop 

 reported from India first caused spot holders to reconsider their views. 

 The state of trade from May 1st up to Whitsuntide could scarcely be 

 called healthy, but it was only in the last fortnight of the month that 

 the rush to secure a prompt market for newly arrived cargoes caused 

 a serious fall in prices. 



Wheat. — British wheat is about eighteenpence per quarter cheaper 

 on the month, but supplies have not been excessive, and farmers 

 have rather modified their requirements out of sympathy with 

 the far heavier fall in imported wheat than under any direct pressure 

 to sell. The decline in imported wheat is difficult to average, but may 

 perhaps be put at a minimum of 3s. per qr. On the last day of April 

 new Indian wheat was on sale off stands at 39s. per 496 lb. ; on the 

 last day of May 335. was accepted. This represents the extreme 

 measure of decline, and has been induced by the large surplus. Official 

 figures available on the 30th, and materially influencing Mark Lane,, 

 gave the yield at 9,535,000 tons against 7,585,000 tons for the previous 

 season. As the 7,585,000-ton yield exceeded local needs and admitted 

 of some exports, it was argued that an extra two million tons would be 

 available in the course of the next twelve months. The experience cf 

 Indian wheat shipments in the past, however, hardly warrants the 

 corollary that the extra two million tons will be shipped. Australian 

 wheat, with over two million quarters on passage, has fallen from 405. 

 to 35s. 6d., Durum has fallen from 38s. to 335. 6d., and Odessa Ghirka 

 from 38s. 6c?, to 325. 6d. Australian, despite an almost unprecedentedly 



