GRAIN AND PRODUCE.

Press, Volume XLVI, Issue 7262, 23 January 1889, Page 3

GRAIN AND PRODUCE.

Since the date of our last Summary the weather has been exceedingly propitious for the crops, which owing to a cold bleak Spring were, prior to that, backward and unpromising. Warmth and sunshine, however, alternating with genial and copious rains, have quite altered the position, and given a liberal proportion of fine weather during February the farmer who can find room to grumble about the season -will indeed be a hard case. The declining tendency in the market at the date of our last report became daily more pronounced, and during the past few days there has been quite a stampede to sell, with the result that prices nave suffered a severe drop. The new crop should be ready for cutting about the beginning of next month, but it will be some weeks before the grain will be offering freely. The buoyant feeling in oats so marked last month has gradually subsided, and values are now more in accord With the prices current in Austraian markets. Reports are very conflicting as to the probable yield of the approaching harvest, but the impression prevails that it will be quite up to, if not beyond, the average. The prospects of the barley crop are well thought of, and it is expected, that there will be a large surplus of choice malting for export. Peas and beans, although in narrow compass, have had little inquiry of late. On the Peninsula cocksfoot cutting has fairly commenced. The crop is expected to be a comparatively light one, and the quality is reported to be scarcely so good as that of the previous season. Rye grass has been a partial failure in some districts, and there will hot be so large a yield as we have had of late years. In potatoes there have been a few forward sales made at prices which have not yet transpired The new crop'will probably not be raised until about April, so that it is yet too early to form any reliable notion as to what values will be. The outside inquiry for butter has quite given way, and prices have fallen considerably. For cheese there has been little- demand, and quotations are unaltered. The following are quotations of the day:— Wheat—Tuscan .. .. 3s6d Do.—Hunter's and Pearl .. 3s 6d Chick wheat. .... ..3s Oats Milling; .. 2s9d Stoutshortfeed .. 2s 8d Barley—Feed 3s6d Beans .. .. •- •• 3s 3d to 3s 6d Peas 3s 3d to 3s 6d Ryegrass 2s6dto2s9d Ayefrass(machinedressed) 3s 3d to3s6d Cocksfoot .. .. 21dto3d - Flour, in sacks (stone) .. £ll Do.. do. (roller) .. £12 Oatmeal .. £18 Pearl barley £20 Potatoes, in Christchurch.. Nominal Bras £5 Pollard .. 65 Oat sheaf chaff.. ... .. £4 Oatstraw £210 a Butter—Prime 6d to7d Cheasefold) .... .. 5d Do. (new) .... .. 3idto4d Hams aad bacon—ln cloth.. 7jd The above prices are to.b at Lyttaltoa.