WILL WHEAT RECEDE?

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 592, 21 August 1909, Page 8

WILL WHEAT RECEDE?

ONE SUBTLE BUT POTENT THINC ' FLOTJR-MIXING. "'• ' New Zealand agriculturists, in . this year of- extensive wheat-sowing will be interested in some neat-points made by the "Mark Lane Express" (London) of April 24, touching the intricate' matter of supply and demand. While rejecting any suggestion that the pendulum of wheat prices will swing back, tho writer, says enough to show, that it would bo_ quite feasible to find the shortage of British or Australian wheat remaining pronounced after foreign wheat had, become fairly abundant. /It all depends oh that mysterious tho modern baker —flour-blending. Tho.. "Mark Lane Express" writer,says: ; — . ..- .. . . i , -. "When the price of any article is raised to an' appreciable height above tho original expenditure on its production there is usually a'material change of reaction in values. Are. tho present circumstances in tho' wheat trade such as_ to suggest. , a fall? With, respect to. British wheat it cannot be answered too promptly in thq negative. : Tlio stocka of British wheat arc smaller than they.have been in late April for many years. Comparing the figures emanating from Printing House Square on April 16 and tho details given by ourselves on April 19, it is tolerably clear that the chief daily assumes all the wheat grown in , a season to go to the mill, whereas, /if course, tho very best season lias. its tailings, and tho rainy harvest of 1008 reduced large quantities of what mi'ght have been milling wheat to tho level of poultry corn. Reserves in farmers' hands tnorcforo are quite 30 per cent, smaller than the public know. Tho real seriousness of tho crisis in British. wheat is not yet fully appreciated. There is another matter which millers know, vin., that while an all-British loaf is not liked by town bakers, an all-foreign loaf is not liked by tho customer because of its aridity. and jflavourlcssness. A little British wheat will suffice to suggest a slight nutty flavotir K and to impart a more agreeable texture to "'tho whole kmf, Now, at ordinary times the miliar has so dljfleultjj k> caa do with leu

British llinii wo cnro to think, Hut bo* tweon now and a now Home crop ]io will Imvo to blond over 80,000,000 bushels of excessively dry foreign wliwit with at most 5,000,01)0 bushels romaining of llio old Jiritts'li wheat crop. It is doubtful if lib. of British wheat to Ulb. of foreign will bo enough to proven t tho loaf deteriorating in flavour, aim wo expect to see millers buying freely of tho foreign sorts, lilto Australian, which approaches nearest to liritish. But at all events those G. 000,000 bushels are bound to bo exceedingly precious. Wo hold them to bo intrinsically worth 60s. nor quarter of eight bushels, and 455, is certainly tho lowest price to bo considered. As t<i imported typos tho reader of tho market reports from week to week between now nnd August must bo prepared for fluctuations, tho result of* alternate, nbundanco and scarcity in tho different descriptions. 'Jlio oxpert inillor will have hia work cut out, and no will have to blend his imported wheat with rare cunning. Ho is equal to tho lfw)k,» but in .order to accomplish it lio will lyi'vo to buy this or that particular importation ao needed for his formula, for tlio id<!» \whind and assisting with special v/ilno hid 'patent' or special make. • Thus oik,i isoii 'of foreign': wheat .will be at tiiiiofi more sought after than another, and with irr(<|;illarilios in arrivals duo to winds which., retard or accelerate tho Biiiliiß i(bi|W wftii thoir grain freights, wo shall bo i)lflpitl«l to wiinoss corresponding irroftiilarltlfiit 111 market quotations for imporffl, /lilt tlmt tho markets should maniicflt for British wheat an unbroken firinnoiiH in tho only (/inclusion to which a review of tho w'tiintlon can lead."