and drought, began to be current, and they have continued with more or less force ever since. To what extent the previous excellent prospect has been reduced we are not in a position to state. It is clear, however, that as a result of drought, accompanied by abnormally high temperature, the productiveness of the plant has been reduced in many localities. This is particularly true of portions of Texas, Arkansas and Tennessee, although Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama claim damage from the same causes. There is one fact that is undisputed, and that is, that the crop of 1896 is earlier than any that has preceded it within the past decade. Analyzing our advices from the various States, the present promise would seem to be best in Georgia and the Carolinas, and least encouraging in the Southwest-Texas and Arkansas.

Sea Island Crop and Consumption.-The total growth of Sea Island for 1895-96 is 93,187 bales; and, with the stock at the beginning of the year, (405 bales,) we have the following as the total supply and distribution:

40,530

Leaving for consumption in the United States,.......bales,

We thus reach the conclusion that our spinners have taken of Sea Island cotton this year 40,530 bales, or 5,551 bales more than in the previous year.

HIGHEST AND LOWEST PRICES OF MIDDLING UPLAND COTTON IN THE NEWYORK MARKET ON SATURDAY OF EACH WEEK DURING THE YEAR ENDING AUGUST 29, 1896.

REVIEW OF THE WHALE FISHERY OF THE UNITED STATES,

FOR THE YEAR 1896.

THE Conditions of the whale fishery have not improved the past year, either in catch or prices. The sperm whaling is almost reduced to an nonentity-there being only fifteen vessels at sea in the business, (eleven of which are brigs and schooners,) and all cruising in the Atlantic ocean.

The principal interest centres in the right whale fishery, which has been prosecuted the past year by thirty-four vessels, of which sixteen were steamers; five vessels were in Hudson Bay and five vessels in Japan and Ochotsk seas, the remaining twenty-four vessels being in the Arctic, and of this number ten steamers and three sailing vessels wintered at Herschell Island and two steamers at Banks Land. The season in the Arctic cannot be said to have been a successful one, as three vessels secured nothing, and six vessels but one whale each, while the remaining fifteen vessels took fifty-nine bowheads, of which twenty-three were taken by two steamers just before leaving the ocean. The total catch of the entire North Pacific fleet was one hundred and two bowheads, of which thirty-seven were taken by the wintered fleet in the fall of of 1895, and twenty-two right whales taken in the Japan and Ochotsk seas.

The five vessels that cruised in Hudson Bay secured ten whales, yielding four hundred and seventy-five barrels oil and about fourteen thousand pounds whalebone. Bark Desdemona, of this port, (NewBedford,) was totally lost September 2d, all being saved, together with the catch of whalebone, about two thousand five hundred pounds.

There are now wintering at Herschell Island five steamers and one sailing vessel, and in Hudson Bay one sailing vessel. The fleet for the season of 1897 will consist of sixteen steamers and thirteen sailing vessels, to comprise the North Pacific fleet, and three sailing vessels for Hudson Bay.

The purchases of sperm oil by the refiners during the past year reached nineteen thousand barrels, a much larger quantity than for some years past. The continued low prices has, no doubt, further increased the consumption. Only about two hundred barrels of crude sperm oil was exported during the year, and it is not likely that much of any quantity will be called for from this side in the future, consumers in Europe being well satisfied with the substitutes, principally "bottle nose," which is in ample supply yearly and very cheap.

Sperm oil opened the year at forty-five cents, but only one small sale was made, the price declining to forty-two and a half cents before the close of January, at which it was steady until June, when a further decline took place to forty cents, and to thirty-eight cents

the following month, and in September the price had declined to thirty-five cents, at which it remained until the latter part of October, when the price took an upward turn to forty cents, and to forty-two and a half cents the following month, at which the year closed with little or no demand.

Whale Oil. The stock carried over last year of about seven hundred and fifty barrels, mostly Sea Elephant, was all disposed of early in the year at or about thirty-five cents per gallon, and the small import during the year of four hundred and forty barrels, mostly "Hudson Bay," found a ready sale at from thirty-five to thirty-six cents per gallon. The market has been bare of stock since October last.

Whalebone opened the year at four dollars per pound for Arctic, at which it remained until April, when some sales were reported at four dollars and twenty-five cents per pound, but this price was not sustained. In June sales were made at four dollars for Arctic and three dollars and sixty cents for Northwest, and these prices ruled until September, when Northwest sold at three dollars and sixtyfive cents. In October and November, owing to the poor news from the North, higher prices were demanded but no sales were made. The price for prime Arctic was virtually four dollars during the entire year. Some parcels may have been sold at three dollars and seventy-five cents, but the quantity was not large.

Refined Spermaceti opened the year at thirty-five cents, declined to thirty-two and a half cents in March, and to thirty cents in April, from which time it remained at that price until October, when it advanced to thirty-one cents and to thirty-two and a half cents in November, the year closing at those figures.

IMPORTS OF SPERM OIL, WHALE OIL AND WHALEBONE INTO THE UNITED STATES DURING THE YEAR 1896.

EXPORTS OF SPERM OIL, WHALE OIL AND WHALEBONE FROM THE UNITED

STATEMENT OF STOCKS OF OIL AND WHALEBONE IN THE UNITED STATES, JANUARY 1st, 1897.

STATEMENT OF THE AVERAGE PRICES OF SPERM AND WHALE OIL FOR EACH MONTH DURING THE YEAR 1896.

STATEMENT OF THE NUMBER OF VESSELS EMPLOYED IN THE WHALE FISHERY OF THE UNITED STATES, JANUARY 1, 1897.

REVIEW OF THE DRY GOODS TRADE OF NEW-YORK,

FOR THE YEAR 1896.

THE year 1896 has been one of extraordinary trials for all branches of business, in which the dry goods trade has fully shared. The apprehensions created by the acute phase of the Venezuelan question had brought about a distressing stringency in financial circles, and caused all merchants to reduce their operations to extremely conservative limits. As the year opened with considerable stocks of merchandise in first hands, such conditions had an adverse effect upon values, and prices ruled decidedly irregular in nearly all directions. The successful bond issue in February brought relief and encouraged hopes of a gradual improvement, but both were temporary only, as there soon came to light indications of the existence of a free silver sentiment in the South and West which grew, as the year advanced, to such formidable dimensions as to excite the gravest apprehensions of the outcome of the presidential contest in November. Banks and other financial institutions evinced the greatest timidity in affording accommodation. Merchants had not the ability to operate with any freedom even if they had the disposition. Business was reduced to the dimensions of absolutely imperative requirements, and stocks of goods grew in the hands of manufacturers until the latter were forced into a policy of extraordinary curtailment. During the late summer and early fall there was a greater stoppage of machinery in the country than ever seen before, and all branches of textile manufacturing were alike affected. Cotton, woolen and silk mills and knit goods factories all felt the ill effects and in about the same proportions. The reduced production had a steadying effect upon prices in many directions, but there was nothing like a recovery of the declines in the earlier part of the year. With the defeat of the free silver party at the polls came a general expression of renewed confidence in the future. There was a general resumption of work on the part of the cotton mills and to a smaller extent by woolen and other concerns, but the experiences of the past seven weeks have failed to furnish practical support in the shape of any material expansion of buying, and the year closes with business still in a dull condition. The closing prices in cotton goods. are not the lowest of the year, but they are with hardly an exception materially lower than at the close of 1895. In woolen goods, both men's wear and dress fabrics, the market is distinctly lower, and lower all around also for knit goods and silk manufactures. The manufacturing interests with one accord complain of the unprofitable level of prices during the year, and the business of both commission houses and jobbers compares unfavorably with the experiences of the preceding year.