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Show COUNTRY BANKS : REDUCE THEIR BORROWINGS i HAN FRANCISCO. May 10. Eaa-; Eaa-; lar rrrdit condition. In agricultural section. hva ban tha Immediate r-ault r-ault of advancing; prlcea for tha principal! prin-cipal! agricultural product of tha - twelflh federal reaerv. dlatrlrt, John lVrrln, federal reacrve agent, declared , la hla monthly report mada public here. "1 Miring tho four week, .ndlng Man-It 8. normally a period of aoma credit expaneinn In thla dlatrlrt. country coun-try member Intnlta reduced their t'r-rowlnga t'r-rowlnga from tho feleraJ reaerve hnnk hy approximately $1,000,000, or H.2 par cent." the roport bmII. "In tha tirnn period, tho prevailing Inlerc.t rnto charged borrowers In S;tlt ljk City, the financial renter of the Inter-mountain Inter-mountain dlalrlct, declined from S to 7 per Pi nt and In Hpokana, the center if I another great agricultural acctlon, from 1 7 to 1-2 per cent. ("Advancra during ths pt iw month in the prices of farmers' products, prod-ucts, accompanied as the yhava been by stability or a continued moderate dc- j I rllnc In the price of moat other group j 4 of cntmn'Mlltiea, have effected n more . nearly normal relation bHwwn the , prices of things the fiirmcr a"lta and ; the prices nf th things he buys than I has prevaUf-il for the past year and a half. Huch nn aljuttment has long I he-en cr.nsldcrcd essential to any marked Improvement of Ihe general hualness situation. STOCKS REDUCED. ln contrast with conditions pre-Talllng pre-Talllng a year ago. carry-over stocks of agrlciiltural producis nre nt present pres-ent normal or helnw normal. Th March 1 report of ths Vnlted States department of agriculture shows that stocks of wheat on the farms of ths principal wheat growing states of the district amounted to hut 10 per cent of the former season's crop. Ijkat year f on tho same data approximately lfl per cent of the lStliO crop was still held by the producers. Ftocka of Iiht-ley Iiht-ley in California have been similarly reduced from tho exceptionally high levels of 1921 and hnhllnu of witot and nf canned and dried fruit are less than Ihe amounts customarily on hand at this seasim. "ITmiurtive) activity In this district w i m well sustained dtirincr t he short month of February. In the. lumber in-' in-' duMtry. production, shipments and 4, iirilers received were greater than in January. 19:'2. or February, 1921. The mills operated at approximately 85 per cent of normal capacity compared with 60 per cent a year ago. Thy resumption resump-tion of Inquiries for lumber from the agricultural states of the Mlddlo West was a particularly hopeful slun. especially espe-cially for the inland mills which have not shared the thriving water trade, with tho Atlantic: coast and Japan. Continued slow improvement was noticeable no-ticeable in the mining industry effected effect-ed more bv lowered costs of production, than by appreciation tn mineral prices. Work Is proceeding slowly at the five largo copper mines of the district which In January announced that oper-t oper-t atlons would n resumed. No ore haa yat been mined by them. OUTDOOR WORK OPENS. "Increased productive activity nnd - tho resumption of seasonal outdoor work in some sections have combined to relieve tho unemployment situation and more men were employed in February Feb-ruary than In January. The peak of unemployment appears to hava been passed. "Notwithstanding accumulating evidence evi-dence of better business In the future, buyers both at retail and at wholesale whole-sale are proceeding cautiously. Retail Hales aa reported In thirty-three department de-partment stores nnd mall order houses compared less favorably In February with those of the previous year than did Januaxv sales. Tho dollar value of A sales in February was 8.7 per cent less aw than a year ago compared with a de- t. dine of hut 6.3 per cent from January, "Sales nt wholesale, reported by 185' firms In ten lines of business, did not I continue the Improvement notwl in j each month since October, 1921. Comparison Com-parison of sales In January and February Feb-ruary of this year with salts in the' corresponding months lnut year shows that In seven of the ten lines there was nn increase, during February, in the percentage of decline In value of sales as compared with January. In five of the ten lines the decline in the value of salrs was greater than the average decline of wholesale prices during the past year, indicating a decrease in the physical volume aa well aa In tho value of sales. "Building continues more active than ; a year bro. The number of permits Is- i sued in twenty principal cities In Feb- ruary. 1922. exceeded the number is- j sued In February, 1921, bv 14 per cent and the vulua of the 1922 permits exceeded ex-ceeded tho value of the 1121 permits by fiu.t per cent. Substantial Improvement Improve-ment in the physical volume of business busi-ness being transacted throiiKhout the district is indicated by figures on debits to Individual accounts In twenty twen-ty clearing house centers. In the four weeks ending March 1. 1122, debits to individual accounts were only 3 per 1 cent less than In the same period in in 21. In January. 1922, the decline compared with tha previous yar was 8.2 per cent." |