191 1.] The Corn Markets in February. 



1041 



cereal year ended February 28th were commonly regarded as no more 

 than equal to the requirements of an average season. 



Flour. — A material increase in the inquiry for medium rough grists 

 is the chief event in this trade. An eighty per cent, formula, which is 

 about midway between the finest roller flour and coarse brown bread 

 flour, has found considerable favour with the public, and has enabled 

 millers to place large quantities of such flour at 22s. to 245. per sack. 

 In the value of top-price flour there has not been any material change, 

 but Town Whites and Town Households gave way on the 20th six- 

 pence per sack, and country makes followed the London kinds at the 

 next market. 



The price of American and Canadian fell sixpence between the 13th 

 and the 27th, but the supply on passage is so small and offers for 

 March shipment are so limited that the month closed with several 

 important firms holding for full prices. Australian flour has sold badly, 

 and is a shilling cheaper on the month. North America in February 

 shipped only 360,000 sacks. 



Barley. — Canterbury on the 25th quoted an average of 285. lod. and 

 Maidstone 315. 6d., but most of the statute markets have hardly reached 

 255.; 245. was the London mean for the week ended 21st, and in the 

 ^course of the following days Berwick, Cambridge, and Reading ranged 

 between 245. and 255. The demand for fine quality for seed varies greatly 

 with different markets at this period of the year. At Mark Lane full 

 average sowings for February were spoken of, but there was little bought 

 off stands ; farmers of means depend more and more on the seed mer- 

 chants, who do business mainly by catalogue or through travellers. The 

 others select as well as they can for themselves from their own or 

 locally grown grain. This, at least, is what is commonly alleged by 

 those who complain that Mark Lane is no longer the high quality 

 barley market that it used to be. 



Russian feeding barley has been in fair but not large supply, and 

 the demand for barley meal, mainly for pig feeding, being good, prices 

 have kept at 20s. 6d. to 215. per 400 lb. Shipments for February were 

 837,000 qrs. from Russia, and 370,000 qrs. from Roumania, Bulgaria, 

 and Salonica. There were some minor shipments of Ouchak from 

 Smyrna. The supply on passage fell on the month from 690,000 qrs. 

 to 685,000 qrs., a change of no market moment. Imports for the first 

 half of the cereal year have been rather less than usual, while sales of 

 home-grown have been rather liberal. The net position of the trade 

 as a whole approaches very closely to the normal. 



Oats. — A fair average for British has been made in London, but 

 many of the country markets have been exceedingly depressed. A 

 large area, for February, was said by frequenters of Mark Lane on the 

 27th to have been sown to oats in the Home Counties and East 

 Anglia. Good heavy oats fetched at that market a full guinea for 

 horse feed, and more if of named sort for seed. Six months' sales al 

 the country markets — September 1st to February 28th — were very much 

 the same as for the like period of last cereal year. Imports have been 

 decidedly small. There were on the 28th, however, 840,000 qrs. — a 

 record quantity — on passage, and the surpluses of Russia and Argentina 

 are being pressed on the market at the very low price of 135. to 135. 6d. 

 per quarter. February shipments were 897,000 qrs. from Russia and 

 661,000 qrs. from South America. 



