THE WHEAT TRADE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 995, 27 March 1891, Page 20

THE WHEAT TRADE.

Erom one end of the Colony to the other the harvest may now be Baid to be over, and the hum of the threshing machine tells that the hopes and fears of the farmer are being realised. We cannot shut our eyes to the fact that the grain harvest of New Zealand for the year 1890-91 is not satisfactory. It will be the worst harvest gathered here for some years past. In the South Island daring the whole time of the growth of grain from the first appearance of the blade above ground to the time it was ready for the reaper and binder, a long and disastrous drought prevailed, the result being that grain was starved for want of moisture. In some cases the crops were not worth gathering, and cattle were turned in to feed on what should, in a favourable season, have been exported. In the North Island there was a fair supply of rain, but, unfortunately for our exports, comparatively little grain is grown. It is Canterbury, and more especially Otago, that contains the wheat belt of the Colony, and the yield from those provinces this Beason is miserably small as a rale. A few years ago we were blessed with magnificent crops, whose yield was phenomenal, and with fair prices in the English markets, our farmers made money out of wheat. It was true that freights were from 60s to 555, but the quantity and the price made freights easy. To-day, with a poor yield, freights are as low as 355, a rate all the more tantalising to the unfortunate farmer. As if to aggravate the wheat grower still more, prices on the English market have advanced daring the past month. Prime New Zealand wheat is now 42s per quarter. This advance cornea from more than one source. In the first place the extraordinarily severe weather in England greatly interfered with threshing operations, and in the second place the imports from foreign countries had greatly fallen off, principally in consequence of the greater demand in the wheat exporting countries and their indifferent harvests. The following figures show the falling off in the imports daring the month of January last as compared with the corresponding weeks of recent years. The total quantity of wheat and flour imported was for the weeks ending January 10, 1891, 277,057qr5. January 11, 1890, 355,302qr5. January 12, 1889, 344,072qr5. The quantity of foreign flour and wheat on passage to the United Kingdom on Jan. 19. as compared with the quantity on preceding periods, was as follows : January 19, 1891, 1,968,000qr3. January .19,1890, 2,078,500qr5. January 19, 18S9, 2,422,500qr5. While we have to deplore the bad harvest of the present season we must make the best of a bad job, and look forward to what the future has in store for us. Many farmers will be discouraged by this season’s grain return, and some will be weak-minded enough to forswear grain next year. We opine that this will be a serious mistake. It is scarcely probable that there will be two year*’ drought in the South Island successively. It is just as probable this next spring will be a genial one with abundance of moisture, when grain will have the advantage of a good start in its growth.

There are Bigns in the world that wheat will rule at good paying prices for some time to come. A leading American journal from the results of careful observation and calculation, gives a candid opinion that nearly all tbe wheat producing land in the United States has been brought under cultivation. Indeed, one writer goes so far as to state that it is next to impossible to obtain a thousand acres fit for wheat, of what we should term native land, that is, land the property of the State. All the fine land has been snapped up, and this year Amerioa is growing just about as much wheat as it is possible to raise. Her last census Bhows a population of some 62 millions to feed. Upon a rough calculation these people will take at the lowest estimate some five hundred million bushels. After deducting the amount from tbe aotual quantity raised there will be but a comparative small amount for export, certaiuly not sufficient to swamp the English market and bear down prices. Take the State of California, where high grads wheat has been raised for many years past. The farmers find that fruit raising and drying and the cultivation of the grape for wine making, yields them more than double the income that wheat does. Hence wheat is neglected, and land once laid down in vines or fruit trees will not, in all probability, ever yield wheat again. As this is the case over a large area, California will havo in the future to import instead of export wheat. This point is another factor of importance to New Zealand wheat growers. Most excellent wheat can b® raised in many parts of the North Island, but owing to the paying prices realised for beef and mutton, wheat has been neglected. In all probability, as far as can be seen by a careful study of the world’s requirements, wheat will, with average harvests, be a paying crop for some years to come, and North Island farjners should not neglect to make wheat one fairly certain portion of their incomes. Our dairying industry, now in its infancy, promises, with care, to pay well. Our frozen meat trade is growing beyond all expectations, and as wheat is likely to pay a good return the prospects of the agricultural community appear very healthy for the future. It is as well for farmers to have more than one iron in tbe fire, and anyone having suitable land for wheat raising will, as far as one can judge for all circumstances, not lose money this next season by a liberal planting of that useful grain.