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Show BUSINESS, TRADE, AND FINANCE, The week just past has been the real opening of spring; the days have been bright and warm, and vegetation has come forward with a Jump. The shower of yesterday morning was a needed relief; re-lief; it cleared tho air of dust, and wot the surfaco of the ground, which had begun to .show signs of too much dryness. dry-ness. The outlook for the agricultural, and horticultural season was never better; It has seldom been so good. The rango Is ln fine condition also. The sheep are being driven by the hundreds of thousands thou-sands from their winter range on the deserts to the hills, but aro detained at convenient points on the railroad for shearing, which is now ln full activity. Something like fifteen million pounds of wool will be shorn in this State at the present shearings. The amount of money to be paid for wool, in the region of .which this city is the center and from whence the money will como to mako the payments, will easily reach threo million dollars. The mines show up grandly everywhere every-where save on the Stock Exchange, whore there seems to be a knock-down prejudice. Tho product of ;the mines Is at full volume, and in excellent richness. rich-ness. There has been some delay in a few places, on account of bad spring roads, ln getting the ores to market, but on tho whole, the production Is at the top notch. There are constant additions addi-tions to the ore bodies In proved mines, and now discoveries which assure an Indefinite prolongation of the mino production, pro-duction, and its enlargement from time to time. The smelters of this valley are doing their full duty ln handling the ores, adding new capacity, and putting ln moro and approved processes. Tho equipments in tho ore-handling plants here aro now far away beyond anything ever known before, and undoubtedly will so enlarge that this will bo tho great smelting center of the country. The railroad situation is excellent. Tho San Pedro Is pushing on energetically, energeti-cally, and puts down track as rapidly as need be to fill all promises and requirements. re-quirements. The track is down to Moapa (of old, tho Muddy,) and the work of making the deep cut this side of that place is being pushed with active ac-tive force. A temporary track is laid around that point, so as to facilitate the pushing of work beyond. The Denver & Northwestern (tho Moffat road) building hltherwardstrom Denver, is heard from almost dally, in the most gratifying manner; its activity and push are first-class. The announcement announce-ment that by next month 'contract3 would bo let and work begin at this end oMlic line is received with much pleasure pleas-ure here. The Western Pacific, building toward this city from San Francisco, has not been heard from especially during the week, but the certainty of Its coming is not doubted. It has too much money invested to hold back. A dispatch from Denver this morning quotes Information from Cheyenne to the effect that tho Chicago &. Pacific Railroad company, a Chicago & Northwestern North-western auxiliary concern, Is preparing to build a railroad from Caspar, Wyo., to Ogdcn. Utah. Such a movo as this was fully expected, and was speclflcally foreshadowed ln our comment on the Belgian oil syndicate's extension from Otto to Lander. It is the legitimate consequence; con-sequence; the Immediate necessity, one may say, of that extension, and Tho Trlbuno rejoices that the expected nows has come so soon. In this city, the opening of spring, the great Bums received from tho mining operations, and the activity in tho wool market, continue to mako tho financial situation a very strong one. The bank clearances tho past week, for the first time ln many months, exhibit an Increase In-crease over thoso of tho corresponding week last year. The Increase was not greot, to bo sure, being but 1.9 per cent, but it Is much to havu turned the tide. Trade is good, and tho business con- : dltlons show improvement, not only in this city but throughout tho State. The merchants are enjoying a good trade, and the buyers havo plenty of money to pay for the be3t. Collections nro fair, and the outlook -for tho season is more than satisfactory. The real estate market Is brisk; many sales aro reported, and tho prices "are stiffly held. Thero will certainly be an enormous building up of tho city the present season; already new houses aro going up In all parts of town, and the preparations for building are on a scale never before equaled. It will emphatically em-phatically be the building year for Salt Lake. In the country at large, Bradstreet reports re-ports backwardness In business, caused by the unseasonable weather and floods; most measures of trado point to a smaller volume of business than last year, but the railroads about hold their own compared with last year, which was the record. Tho industrial situation situa-tion is not entirely favorable, but the number of markets reporting good or-der3 or-der3 booked for future delivery is large, Dun reports that satisfactory trade conditions are difficult ln the face of untoward un-toward weather conditions, but at many points this is the only unfavorable symptoms. Labor controversies nro still an adverse factor. No definite check to t progress ln tho Iron and 3tcel Industry is noted. Business failures aro about normal. , Tho International Mercantile Agency reports a continuance of favorable trade conditions ln most sections of the country. In wholesale dry goods tho sales In general average up to last year, in some sections even surpassing them. Improvements ln iron have been thoroughly thor-oughly sustained. Tho hank clearances show unmistakable unmistak-able signs of returning to the normal basis. In New York City tho decrease ln their nggrcgatc, compared with the year before, was but 10.7 per cent, which Is tho best showing for several months. The banks outside of New York City showed a gain of .2 per cent, a decrease for all of but G.5 per cent. The New York bank statement, issued is-sued yesterday, showed a considerable Increase in loans, a heavier Increase in deposits, good increase each In legal tenders, specie, reserve, and all the other oth-er ItemSt, It does not appear to have had any particular effect on the stock market, which ha3 been lifeless throughout the week, save for tho flurry flur-ry In Union Pacific caused by the scrap with the Northern Pacific. |