FARMERS’ PROSPECTS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LIII, Issue 5918, 13 February 1880, Page 3

FARMERS’ PROSPECTS.

(fVoKi ihi Canterbury Timet.) Though the season has been a surpassing!)' good or o, and the land is almost groaning under the weight of produce, yet when the full bearings of the situation are taken into opu Mention, it cannot be said that farmers have any particular cause to be exhilarated about their prospects. The wheat crop is heavy, and though the price offered by the local merchants is low enough, yet, taken in conjunction with the yield, it will be reasonably payab’e. Barley, too, will average well to the acre, and will probably show a fair margin of profit. But with regard to the oat crop, we are constrained to pause and reflect. The crops of this cereal are most luxuriant, and cover an immense area, and there seems to be no doubt that the outlets for this part of our produce will be literally choked up. Last year, when the yield touched low water-mark, the supply was in excess of the demand, notwithstanding that the previous season was not so prolific as to leave any great quantity of old oats on hand. We have had, it is true, some slight gleams of hope during the past three weeks. We have had news of the caterpillars having almost destroyed the oat crops in some of the districts of Victoria, and this was followed immediately by the hardening of the oat market in Melbourne. The result may be that the price of oats in the leading markets of New Zealand will not be so low as it might have been, but it is to be feared that the misfortunes of the Victorian oat growers do not afford sufficient grounds for saying that the price of oats will not be very low indeed. Tno thought naturally suggests itself that if one good season coming after two bad ones gluts our markets, what would be the effect of a succession ■of prolific years P Unless necessity, the proverbial mother of invention, should hit upon some new outlet there would scarcely be a demand for a tithe of our produce. When an industry ceases to be profitable the natural consequence is that, capital is withdrawn from that channel and invested in other ways. But rotation of crops is a vital principle of farming, and if oats are left out how else is (he land to bo utilised ? The land cannot produce wheat crops in succession except by deep tillage and the application of artificial fertilisers, but this advanced method our farmers are not prepared to adopt. Barley cannot take the place of oats in a system of rotation except in a limited degree, and therefore we are thrown back upon root crops and grazing. Most fortunately for us our climate is highly favourable for the production of roots and artificial grasses, and in this we possess an incalculable advantage over the neighbouring Colonies of Australia, but then, having grown our roots and grasses, how are we to turn them to profitable account. Our market for meat is even more limited than the oat market, and if the price of meat is low under present circumstances, what would it be if the production of oats were greatly curtailed, and the land thus liberated from com growing devoted to grazing purposes P Our meat preserving and boiling-down establishments afford a safetyvalve against absolute stagnation, but can a farmer with a limited holding afford to produce meat at boiling-down prices The boiling-down process has undoubtedly been a great benefit to the country, but it affords poor consolation to the small stockowner. There are so many ingenious brains at work in devising means of bringing the productions of new countries within reach of the teeming populations of the old world that a regular fresh meat trade between these Colonies and England is by no means an improbability, but there are many obstacles to be overcome before that very desirable consummation can be brought about. The distance is great, and the tropics lie between the two countries. .As most of our readers are aware, the Bell and Coleman process is now under trial as a means of relief to the overburdened meat markets of Australia. This process has been much talked about of late, and much has been hoped from it. It was recently announced that the meat sent Home as a trial had successfully run the gauntlet of the tropics and one important step has thus been gained. But this process partakes in some measure of the nature of a manufacture, and exporting produce through the agency of a special process is a very different thing to shippin it without preparation, as wo do with wheat, and the Americans with cattle. Supposing the meat which has been sent as an experiment arrives in grind condition, we have still to discover whether the price in the English market will cover expenses and leave a fair profit to the producer. And more than this, it still remains to be proved that the Bell and Coleman process can be readily applied on a large scale without involving a serious element of risk. A very little negligence might involve the loss of a whole cargo. But bearing on the question of root crops and pastures, there is the possibility of an important rise in the price of wool. A rise-of threepence or fourpence a pound would make all the difference between a profit or no profit on the part of the producer. There are already signs of the revival of trade, a revival which the woollen market has shared in, but in view of the, enormous production throughout the world it is well not to be too sanguine. We have, however, yet another string to our bow. Dairy farming and pig farming have hitherto been comparatively minor industries in this country, but is there any absolute necessity that they should continue to be so ? They are not minor industries in America—they are carried on there on a gigantic scale; blit for these industries to take an important place co-operation is indispensable. There must be wholesale curing establishments, and wholesale butter and cheese factories, otherwise the articles produced will not be good enough, nor even enough, nor cheap enough to compete in the markets of the world against the Americans or any other shrewd go-ahead people.