Real  Estate   Record





AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.





Vol. XXX.





NEW YOEK, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBEE 16, 1882.





Nr. 757





Published Weekly by The

Real Estate Record Association

TERMS:

ONE TEAR, in advance  -   ...   .  $6.00

Communications should be addressed to

C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway.

J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager.





THE CROPS OF 1883.
From a careful comparison, of all the esti¬
mates of the crops of this year, we give the
following table of wheat and corn, together
with the official figures of former years. It
should be distinctly borne in mind that the
figures of this year are estimated, while
those of former years are official:

Corn, bush.
1,550.000,000
1,194,916,000
1,717,4.31,543
1,547,901,790
1,^.38.^18,750
1,34-^,558,000





Wheat, bush.

1882...................    560,000,0 0

1881...................    380.250,000

1880...................     498.5^9,868

3879...................     448,756,630

lb78..................     420,122,400

1877..................     364,194,146

The Commercial Bulletin of this city esti¬
mates the wheat crop of this year at 575,000,-
000 bushels, while the Cincinnati Price Cur¬
rent puts down the corn crop at 1,800,000,000
bushels, but these figures are probably too
high.   There is plenty of time yet for corn
to be badly damaged.   Frosts late this month
might cut down corn to a yield not very
much greater than that of last year.    Still it
must be admitted there will be large and
abundant crops of corn in the South and
Southwest, while in the states of Missouri,
Kansas and Texas it will be phenomenally
large.   The figures above given would seem
to leave a very large surplus, but, as an off^
set, it should be remembered that ota- popu¬
lation has increased within three years some
3,500,000, while we enter the new year with
our graineries bare of grain.     In view of
the abundance of the grain harvest all over
the world, the prices for flour will be lower
this year than last; hence it is not likely
that thQ farmers and transportation lines
will get more for the crop of 1883 than they
did for 1879 or 1880.   Every year more and
more of our grain is consumed near where
it is grown ; that is to say, the arrivals at
the lake ports constantly show a large rela¬
tive increase compared with the deliveries
of grain at the seaboard depots.   Perhaps it
would be profitable to give the estimates foi:
oats, rye and barley for this year, compared
with the actual returns of former years:

Oats.

bush.

1882....... 580,000,000

1881.......416,481,000

1880........ 417,t85,380

1879......863,761,320

1878....... 413,578,560

1877.......406,394,000

It will be noticed that the oats column
shows an enormous increase over any pre¬
vious year, but all accounts agree that, in
view of the high price of corn in the spring
of 1883, the farmers planted an immense
quantity of oats to ensure feed before the
corn crop matured.

The rye crop is also in excess of previous
j'QaxBf duQ tb the large addition of Qerioans





to our farming population. Tne demand for
rye bread is steadily increasing, because of
the additions to our numbers which corner
from Central Europe. With our large oats,
hay and root crops, and with the additions to
our corn over last year, there can be no doubt
but that food of all kinds, including pork,
beef and mutton, will be very much cheaper
during the next six months than it has been
for the last eight months.

This assurance of cheaper living has al¬
ready had its effect in removing the discon¬
tent of the working classes and putting a stop
to strikes. The only one of our national pro¬
ducts which ought to advance in market
value is cotton. While the crop is better than
last year, we doubt very much whether the
number of bales will reach the magnificent
totals of 1880. Cheap food the world over
means a larger consumption of cotton goods.

The crop question is of vital intere.°t to
every business man, but to none more than
the owners of realty. A shortage like that
of last year would have had a baleful effect
upon our New York real estate market. It
would check temporarily tl e growth of the
city, stop building and redue tbe price of
all kinds of realty, but the large crop of this
year settles the question that business will
be prosperous in all departments of trade,
that stock values will advance, the work of
improvement will go on and that there will
be heavier investments in real estate between
now and next June, and at higher figures,
than in any similar length of time in the
history of tlie metropolis.





press and the public were all deceived, and
Governor Cornell yielded to the clamor and
vetoed this bill which was urgently demand¬
ed by the best interests of New York. A
surface road is needed on Forty-second
street, and will in time be required on One
Hundred and Tenth street; then important
sections of the West Side cannot be improv¬
ed until surface roads are built. It is to be
hoped the politicians will hit upon candi¬
dates for Governor who will not be hostile to
the best interests of this city. We want a
new charter, a reduction of salaries, and a
cutting off of sinecures. Responsible heads
should control the several departments in¬
stead of commissions, and the Mayor
should have the power of appointment and
removal without the interference of the
Aldermen. The career of Mayor Low in
Brooklyn is a splendid vindication of the
one man power in municipal government.







Rye.




Barley





bush.




bush.





31,000,000




50,OOj,000





20,704,950




46,16l,::30





2),540,&9




45,165,316





!i3,t-39,4c0




40,283,100





25,84i,790




42,245,3iO





21,169,500




34,441,400





THE   GOVERNORSHIP.
It is to be hoped that the two political
parties will put up candidates for Governor
who will not be opposed to the interests of
New York City.     Governors Robinson and
Cornell  used. their  official positions, con¬
scientiously no doubt, to injure tlie owners
of realtor in the metropolis.     Because of his
quarrel  with  the   then Comptroller John
Kelly,   Governor  I^binson  vetoed several
legislative acts which w.mld have reduced
our  taxation, while   Governor Cornell has
stood in the way of the construction of a
new  aqueduct, wliich is absolutely needed
to insure New York an abundant water sup¬
ply for the future.    His veto of the railway
bill was a serious injury to the best interests
of this'island.  Tie State constitution makes
it obligatory upon the Legislature to pass a
general law under which surface roads can
be built when and where needed.   This duty
was neglected for several years, but finally
an excellant law was passed at Albany last
spring.      To   guard  against giving away
of a Broadway railroad  franchise by the
local authorities, one of the provisions was
to the effect that the right to run a road on
Broadway should not be sold for less than
$750,000.   This provision was made use of
by the stage companies, and other interested
parties to prejudice the law with the public.
I'liey declared- that it proposed to give away
a franchise which was worth $2,000,000 for
if7q0f000.     The   Mayor,   CojiiptroUer,   t\xe





THE GREAT NEWSPAPER BOSS.

When  Jay Gould succeeded in  getting

absolute control of the telegraph system of

the country, the Recced announced that

thenceforward  he was ,*the master of the

press of the nation, because he owned the

agency without which the newspaper of the

day could not live.     The statement may

have seemed extravagant at the time, but

that it was literally true is shown by the

following from the editorial columns of the

Herald of last Wednesday:

"Suppose Gould should take it in his head some day
that, the Times sha'il have no more news, and in that
quint -svay retaliate its assaults. He may do it. We
are not sure that it -would be an impossible proceed-
insr. He has an almost absolute control of the As^o
ciated Press, and his game is not half played. Let the
Times beware, therefore."

What gives point to this extraordinary
threat is the fact that the Berald, which
was very unfriendly to Gould, is now his
eulogist and is his organ in the canvass
against Cornell. The great speculator really
has the press of the country by the throat
and can throttle any paper in the way the
Herald points out. Hence, the newspapers
are all, save the Times, very • respectful to
their master. Compare their treatment of
him now with^the way they spioke of him and
his partner, Jim Fisk, in the old Erie days.
It is very significant that the Times has
made ii.o response to this attack, nor does-it
deny that Jay Gould has the power to ruin
it.

But it may be said that Jay Gould would
never dare to injure a paper by this means.
But suppose Gould's littl^game was to sell
out the telegraph to the Government, at high
figures, what more effectual means could
be taken than to make the press of the
country demand the change. That he has
such a scheme on foot, is shown by the ef¬
forts he has recently bfen making in that
direction. An article is now being published
as an advertisement in the daily papers,
which was dearly inspired by Gould and
paid for by his money. It contains the fol¬
lowing significant paragraphs:
Under the act of 1866 the United States Gov-





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