FARM NOTES FROM ENGLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10406, 2 April 1897, Page 6

FARM NOTES FROM ENGLAND.

[BT ODB ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL CORRESPONDENT. London, February 5. THE FARMERS' CLDB AND WHEAT OPTIONS. After hearing a paper on this subject read on Monday last at) the London Farmers' Club ib was agreed, with only one dissentient, to request) the Government to appoint a Parliamentary Committee to inquire into the operation of the Option or Future system in the produce markets. All but two of the speakers who took part in the discussion declared themselves strongly in favour of the inquiry, and most of them as fully convincid that the system was a serious cause of depression in the wheat market. One member gave a case in point to show how the quotation of {ambling transactions affects buyers of actual wheat. A large miller in bis district, he said, told him that he fully intended to lay in a large stock of wheat at current prices, fully believing that there would be a considorablo advance before the end of the spring; but when he saw that in the American markets and at Liverpool wheat futures for May and June were quoted at much lower prices than those now current for wheat on the spot, he was afraid to venture, and had therefore made up his mind to buy wheat only "from hand to mouth." Now, this is a striking example of the way in which those quotations of gambling transactions affect the markets. It is the policy of the market wreckers to fix prices of distant futures as low as possible, even at serious risk to themselves as far as those contracts are concerned, in order to run down the prices of wheat for the time being so that they may gain on their current contracts. It is obvious that men who have got great contracts running gain immensely if they can get distant futures quoted nti much lower prices than those current at the time, as they thus produce a fall in near futures, and gain on eveiy settlement day, which is every day in America and Liverpool, At the present time July wheat futures are quoted at 17 cents a bushel in Now York less than spot wheat, and even May wheat h quoted at 14 cents less. Seeing that the pressure upon the scanty supplies of wheat by next May must be folt much more seriously than it is at present, this attempt to hammer prices down is an outrage upon common sense, and if it continues to succeed as it has done recently, it will show that tho power of the market wreckers is so great that it calls urgently for annihilation by means of a strong law against market gambling. FRENCH AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS. From (lie French Ministry of Agriculture I have received the complete agricultural statistics of 1895, containing details as to crops not included in the preliminary returns of tho year of production, corrected figures for the crops then noticed, and the figures for live stock, now presented for the first time. The details as to the principal farm crops, converted into English measures, are shown below :— Bushels Crop. Acres, Bushels, per acre, Wheat.. _ 17,:i9<,12'2 3:10,0;'.1, 18-97 Muslin.. .. liSti.M 1-J.IJS 1,273 17-55

Rye .. .. 3,7p7,82< ii!i,2in,9oo 18"i7 llirley.. .. 3.109,006 46,790,521 21-27 Oat* .. .. 9,5('3,274 20'i,M3,82l 20-01 Buckwheat .. 1,425,012 27.215,713 ]*1B Maize .. * 1,413,824 36,334,039 17-50 Tons. Tons. Potitoos .. 3,803,830 13,733.000 334 Mangold* .. 1,042,2711 ].i.7S(i,insl 10-34 Ktwarbeet .. »6,35S 0,2-4,027 1012 Meadow bay.. 10,747,8£ i 17,U3,0iHl 100 Clover.. ~ 2,701,000 1,51)i,8*i 1-G5 I.UCernO .. 1,982,177 :i,fi(4,Wi 17) Sainfoin .. 1,038,000 •J,IIN,9JU 132 Cwt. Cwt. Ilnps .. .. 7,939 1)7,53tl 851 Tobacco .. 40,421 489,560 12-14 Tho wheat area varied very slightly during tho ten years ending with 1895, except in 1891, when there was an actual deficiency, due to a severe winter. In 1895 ib was little over tho average for the preceding eight years, omitting 1891. The ten years' average yield was 17*40 bushels an acre. Rye has decreased in area by a quarter of a million acres since 1886 , , and barley has decreased slightly, while the area under oats has grown by over half a million acres. Tho ten years' average yiold of barley was 20 50 bushels an acre, and that of. oats was 25-20 bushels. ■•' The live stock are compared with those of the two preceding years :— 1893. 1604. 1895. Horses .. .. 2,707,043 2,5"7,U42 2,812,147 Mules .. .. 210.755 218,702 211,479 Asses .. .. 357,<iU5 3.">9,!-79 357,778 Cattle .. .. 12,154,811 12,870,240 13,233,823 Sheep .. .. 20,27.i,710 2.',721,HW 21,103,767 Goats .. .. 1,486.461 1.609,502 Pigs .. .. 6,800,592 0,018,872 6,300,019 Except for mules and asses, those figures show steady increase. CROPS IN AUSTRIA. The crop returns of Austria, exclusive of Hungary, for 1896, from the Ministry of Agriculture, compare as follows with those of the two preceding years ;— 1894, 1895. 1890. (Jr* Qrs. <Jr». Wheat-.. .. n,'JIO,OOO 5,014,000 ii,2 M,OOO Rye .. .. O,(I8U,OOU 7,630,000 8,002,000 llarley .. .. 7,507.001) 7,170.000 7,705,000 Oats .. .. 12,801,000 13,359,000 11,0'7,0W Maize .. .. 1,010,000 2,208,000 2,070,000 THE AMERICAN WHEAT CROP. The final official estimate of the American wheat) crop of 1896 makes ib 39 million bushels leas than that of 1895, Some commercial authorities rofuse to accept) the official estimate, and declare it to bo underrated ; bub even if this be true, the deficiency exists all the same, because the previous year's crop was unquestionably underrated. If wo take the official estimate, the statistical position of wheat in the United States stands as follows for the cereal year 1896-7 :— Bushels. Visible and invisible supplies, July 1 ~ loip,Ooii,ooo Crop of 1896 428,000,000 Total supply 5-28.000.000 One year's consumption, U.S.A. „ 377,000,050 Balance .. .. „ „ 161,000,000 Irreducible Reserves .. „ _ 40,000,000 Available surplus .. „ .. 111,000,000 Already exported, about 97,000,000 Kemniniiiß surplus, February 1.. 14,000,000 This would be only about six weeks' ordinary export for the present period of the year, even allowing for the 'reduction of the visible and invisible stocks to the extreme limit. But let us suppose that tho commercial authorities, who put the crop at 450,000,000 bushels, are approximately accurate. This ie 22,000,000 bushels more than is allowed in the table on official authority. In this case the available surplus for five months to July 1 will be only 34,000,000 bushels at the outside, allowing for a quite unusual draught upon stocks regarded as necessary reserves. For the twenty-one weeks the average shipments would be only 1,476,000 bushels a week, or not much more (him half the average weekly exports for the last three years, for the corresponding period of the ieason. These figures represent exports to all countries, and not more than two-thirds of the quantity would como to Europe. Thus, even if we take the optimistic view of the commercial authorities, the remaining surplus in the United States is an extremely small one. To show the effect of depression on wheatgrowing in the United States, I have compiled th following table from the official figures :—e Farm

price Vr. Acres. Bushels. Bush. per per acre, bush,,

1887.. 37,611,783 .. 456,629,000 .. 121 . mi 18-8.. 37,330,138 .. 415,863,000 .. ll'l ,] « 188!!.. 38,123,869 .. 4911,500,000 .. 121) .. « ISflO.. 30,037,154 .. 393,462,000 .. 11 .. 83'S 1891.: 39,916.807 .. (111,780,(100 .. lo'H ~ 83 - 9 ISM.. :!5,65J,450 .. 515,949,000 .. 13 6"-4 1693.. 34,629,418 .. 390,131,725 .. 11'4 ~ 53-8 1894 . 3»,852,438 .. 400.267,410 .. 13-2 49-1 1595., 34,047,332 .. 467,102,947 .. 137 '.. 50D ISM.. 34,619,000 .. 42i,654,000 .. 12'4 .. 721) The average area for the first five years was 37,821,169 acres, and for the second five years only 35,346,528 acres, showing a decrease of nearly 2J million acres, white the population increased more than twenty millions, but on account of the extraordinary series of prolific harvests from 1891 to 1895 the average production has been greater in the second five years than in the first, the official quantities for those five years having all been underrated, as proved by tho statistics of distribution. With respect/ to prices, which are taken in December in each year, the average for the first five years was 796 cents a bushel, and for the second five years 57 '8 cents, showing ■* decrease of 271 per cent, in the farm value of wheat. »