328 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[November, 
Europe, published an editorial article on the state 
of the British and French Corn (Wheat) Mar¬ 
kets, including a translation of authentic re¬ 
ports from forty-two important grain districts in 
the latter country. Without following the lan¬ 
guage or order of the long summary of the 
Mark Lane Express, we will condense some of 
the statements, and the conclusions arrived at: 
1. —France has been generally, and particu¬ 
larly for two or three years past, an exporter of 
wheat. This year, not only is there no old 
stock of wheat in that country to fall back up¬ 
on, but the deficiency in France alone is estimated at 
8,000,000 quarters, or sixty-lour iBaiSlsosa 
bushels! The Government is alarmed, and 
has not only thrown open the ports to free im¬ 
portations of grain, but the indications are that 
measures will be taken to prohibit export, 
should higher prices elsewhere make such pro¬ 
hibition necessary to retain all the grain in, and 
to come into, that country. 
2. —The Roman Government has already issued 
a prohibition against any export of grain, and 
the measure will probably be followed by all 
the other Italian States. These indications 
are mainly important as showing that, with 
some few exceptions, the deficiency in the past 
harvest has been general throughout Europe. 
3. —In the great wheat-growing Baltic Pro¬ 
vinces the harvest was less productive than usu¬ 
al, and there will be less to export this year. 
4. — Spain, Belgium and Holland will be buyers of 
grain this year—an event that seldom happens. 
5. —In Great Britain, says the M. L. Express, it 
has now become evident to every one at all con¬ 
versant with harvesting affairs', that the wheat 
is not only deficient in yield, blit also that the 
breadth sown was much less than the average. 
6. —In Great Britain the average annual con¬ 
sumption of foreign grown wheat, for the past 
eleven years, has amounted, in round numbers, 
to 5,000,000 quarters, or 40,000,000 bushels a 
year. (The importation of wheat into Great 
Britain for the past year was ten and a half mil¬ 
lion quarters, or 85,000,000 bushels, nearly all 
of which went into consumption, in addition to 
the home growth of the harvest of 1860.) 
7. —The average annual wheat crop of Great 
Britain is about 120,000,000 bushels, we believe. 
For the harvest of 1861, taking into account 
the low yield, and the limited breadth sown, 
the deficiency can not be estimated at less than 
one-fiftli, or 24,000,000 bushels, which added to 
the average importation, makes the foreign demand 
this year for Great Britain alone 
SmsSnelii ! [The deficit of 24,000,000 bushels 
for the current year is probably under-estimated 
if anything. Some place it at fully one- 
fourtli or 30,000,000 bushels. 'It is also to be 
taken into account, that owing to the previous 
bad harvest, the stock of good wheat on hand at 
the opening of the recent English harvest was 
very low, so that the new crop entered at once 
into consumption. Considering this, together 
with the fact that relatively higher prices in 
France incited unusual exports to that country 
from England, it will not be surprising if the 
home grown English wheat is exhausted much 
earlier than usual.—E d. Amer. Agr.] 
8. — France and Gh-eat Britain together will 
therefore require, to make up the deficiency of 
tins year’s harvest, cme tiuudred she ad 
forty-Sour miHBaums (144,©©«,©<()©) 
BaaasBaels wlaent !— equal to nine thousand 
ship loads, at 16,000 bushels each ! 
9. —It is probable that the increased price will 
somewhat lessen the average consumption, es¬ 
pecially as the lack of cotton, and the lessened de¬ 
mand from the United States for manufactured 
goods, will decrease the ability to purchase 
food. It has been found, however, that the 
poorer classes consume less meat in times of de¬ 
pression, and eat more bread which is always 
a cheaper food than meat. But after allowing 
for all deductions, the Express may well say: 
“ It is best to look this dilemma in the face at 
once.... nor is there any time to be lost.”_ 
“We shall this year have to compete with 
France, Spain, Holland and Belgium in the 
other markets.”-“ France is alive to the exi¬ 
gency, and the Government does not wait for 
private enterprise.”_“ Unless our merchants 
bestir themselves, we shall be forestalled in all 
the grain-exporting ports of Europe, as well as 
in those of the United States.”_ 
Such are the views taken of the matter by a 
leading foreign journal. The readers of the 
American Agriculturist will bear witness that we 
have for months past predicted this state of 
things, and we will only add, that what we have 
hitherto written has not been founded upon 
opinion merely, nor has the wish been father 
to the thought, but we have spared no effort to 
ascertain the real condition of the foreign grain 
crops, so far as that condition would be likely 
to affect the interests of this country. 
--«•-*--=<©—- - - - 
The Home Trade in Breadstuff's.—-How 
much can we Export this Year? 
“ How much Wheat and Flour can the Uni¬ 
ted States spare this year?” is a question of gen¬ 
eral interest, not only here, but in Europe, in 
view of the great foreign demand referred to in 
another article. Unfortunately, we have not 
yet in this country any method of gathering ac¬ 
curate statistics of the crops. All is guess-work, 
and anything we may offer is to be taken as 
merely an opinion founded upon general obser¬ 
vation and report, and such special sources of 
information as our position naturally gives. 
That the Wheat harvest of 1860 was unpre¬ 
cedented, in our country, is conceded on all 
hands. As soon as threshing commenced, con¬ 
siderable quantities were hurried forward to the 
Eastern markets, partly to supply the home de¬ 
mand, and partly for a limited export. It was 
late in the season before we had positive infor¬ 
mation regarding the real deficiency resulting 
from the late, rainy harvest in England. Prices 
at the West were moderate, and few farmers 
were willing to accept the proffered rates, ex¬ 
cept those compelled to do so by absolute ne¬ 
cessity. The result was, that only a yery small 
part of our surplus, comparatively, was for¬ 
warded up to the close of navigation. The re¬ 
ceipts at New-York, from all sources, for three 
months ending Nov. 19, 1860, were about 
I, 560,000 barrels of Flour, and 10,281,000 bush¬ 
els of Wheat, equivalent, in round numbers, to 
18,081,000 bushels of Wheat. 
During the Winter, considerable amounts 
were concentrated at Chicago and other points, 
by railroad, and small quantities were sent east 
by the same method of transportation. The 
receipts at New-York from Nov. 19, 1860, to 
May 1, 1861, were 1,280,479 barrels of Flour, 
and 4,924,300 bushels of Wheat—equivalent to 
II, 327,000 bushels of Wheat. 
Before the opening of navigation the present 
year, the utter prostration of Western money 
secured by Southern State Stocks, so deranged 
the Western currency, and so violently dis¬ 
turbed the exchanges, that it was next to im¬ 
possible to carry on extensive operations in 
Breadstuffs. The total receipts at New-York, 
from the opening of navigation, May 1, 1861, to 
August 15, amounted to 9,500,000 bushels of 
Wheat, and 1,401,400 barrels of Flour, mak¬ 
ing the total of Flour and Wheat brought for¬ 
ward from the harvest of 1860, up to the be¬ 
ginning of the new crop receipts, equivalent to 
about 46,000,000 bushels of Wheat. It is safe 
to guess that this was scarcely half of the sur¬ 
plus of the harvest of 1860. 
The harvest of 1861 was good—fully an aver¬ 
age for Winter Wheat, though, from all accounts, 
below the average for Spring varieties, espe¬ 
cially in the States w'est and northwest of Indi¬ 
ana. After allowing liberally for home con¬ 
sumption, it is probable that the surplus of the 
1861 harvest was sufficient to equal all the ship¬ 
ments eastward since the threshing of the new 
crop commenced, leaving an amount equivalent 
to the unsold surplus of last year’s crop still 
stored in the barns, granaries and stacks of the 
Western and Middle States, and the Canadas. 
Indeed, from the want of means to move it, 
there has been comparatively little grain ex¬ 
ported direct from Canada, for several months. 
Looking over all the ground, we conclude 
that should the foreign demand be such for the 
next nine months, as to produce high prices 
enough at our seaboard to draw out the last sur¬ 
plus bushel from the remoter portions of this 
country, including those parts of Canada, from 
which supplies are brought to or through the 
United States, the amount would aggregate any¬ 
where from 60,000,000 to 80,000,000 bshs., Wheat 
and Flour included—probably nearer to the 
latter than to the former figures. Very high 
prices would probably greatly limit our export* 
by drawing out supplies from Eastern Europe, 
in competition with the American market. 
The only limits to the present transactions 
are the capacity of the canals and railroads to 
bring Wheat and Flour, and the lack of ocean 
vessels at moderate freight rates. When the 
inland water navigation closes, the supplies for 
the New-York market will be limited to the ca 
pacity of the railroads. The stock at the sea • 
board will run low, ships will compete for load¬ 
ing at low rates, the foreign demand will be 
large, and as a consequence, prices here will un¬ 
doubtedly rule high during the Winter. 
The railroads, being without competition dur¬ 
ing the winter months, and having all the busi 
ness they can do, will probably charge high 
rates, Avhicli will make considerable difference' 
between the prices at the West and the sea¬ 
board. Still, the high rates here will react fa¬ 
vorably upon the interior, and, with the con¬ 
tinued active foreign demand, and the abun¬ 
dance of money in the country, we shall look 
for the prevalence of fair prices for breadstutfs 
throughout the country, for at least six or eight 
months to come. Beyond that we cannot esti 
mate. A large breadth of Wheat will un¬ 
doubtedly be sown in Great Britain and the rest 
of Europe this Fall, and should their next crop 
be a good one, it will check imports from this 
country. Let us make hay while the sun 
shines. Wheat will sell at some price above the 
cost of transportation. We may not be able to 
say as much of our immense stores of Corn, 
both of the old and new crop. The absence of 
frost, (none up to this date, Oct. 18,) will add 
many million bushels to the corn crop of this 
year. On page 341, we have referred to the 
value of Corn for food. Let us consume it 
largely, and save our Wheat, and get it to mar¬ 
ket while the foreign demand continues. 
