THE WHEAT MARKET. North Otago Times. (Melbourne Age.)

North Otago Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 7463, 10 September 1892, Page 1

THE WHEAT MARKET. North Otago Times. (Melbourne Age.)

The United States Government makes a feature of supplying periodical reports of the whe.it position, and we learn that the last crop report was received with great surprise by the grain trade, for nowhere had the opinion been ventured by any recognised authority that America was about to raise another phenomenally large crop of w hc.it. Indeed, we have been quite used to hearing all sorts of reports from the papers and private reporting agencies, all tending to show how the wheat plant had been injured by .some of the many causes to which it ia susceptible. So it \us not entirely wonderful that estimates of a 500,000,000, or even a 430,000,000 bushel crop of wheat in 1892 had become quite a rule. But according to latest advices, the rango of estimates, based upon the Government report us to acreage and condition, it is from 524,000,000 bushels to 560,000,000 bushels and even higher, and as the correspondent of the Economist remarks, the United States, reckoning for 70,000,000 bushels, visible and invisible, being carried forward from the last harvest, "will if " the new crop of wheat amounts to only 550,000,000 bushels, gne a total with the reserves, of 020,000,000 bushels of wheat, as against b'44,000,000 bushels of new crop and leserveson Ist July, 1801, a falling off in the supply for fhe coming cereal year, as contrasted with supplies at the beginning of the year just ending, of only 24,000,000 bushels. From even this brief resume, it became plain that America ■will be able to export quite as much wheat (counting flour as wheat) in tho year 1892-93 as she exported m 1891-92 —to wit, about 220,000,000 bushels, pro- \ iding that quantity is called, and at the same time ha\o on hand, visible and invisible, on Ist July, 1893, 32,000,000 bushels, or quite as much as they had one year ago." These totals, it approximately correct, do not atlord much comfort to those who are characterised as constitutional "bulls on wheat," for notwithstanding the recently cabled reports of dismal wheat crop piospects m Russia, it may well be regarded .is doubtful whether the United States are to be called upon to bieak the records m the matter of w heat exports for two yeais in succession. Theie is a manifest disposition to re|ect, thus far, the probability of such an outcome ; but should it become evident later m the year that such is tho case, a pronounced revolution m sentiment would have to take place, with a corresponding efiect on prices, which will be felt by glowers in Australia, more or less according to tho extent of the surplus of next season's crop available for shipment to countries abroad.