INDIAN AND ARGENTINE WHEAT

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4330, 13 April 1901, Page 6 (Supplement)

INDIAN AND ARGENTINE WHEAT

A peculiar interest attaches to AißonDf • and India, both as pro an cere rndexnorters of wheat. Then- combined barecMs take nlaco dimxiff what i» known in other principal wheat growing coiiutvief of the 1 world as the dead season of tbs year, the harvest in ArgenDna usual!' hevinmiin late in Novcmher in ' th ® latitudes, and progressing southwards until early in February, and that of. commencing late in February south and progressing northward unm earlv in May. Their surplus, especial!' that of Argentina, therefore comes upon the European markets, particularly if prices are inviting, at a time when both the visible and invisible supplies of other principal wheat-producing countries na' e been depleted. . Prices throughout are thus often liable to be affected by the scarcity or abundance of Argentine and Indian supplies. Tn a season bk® Lieiresent. when the wheat crop of the worj' promises to be considerably less than that of 1809, anil greatly deficient when “"I" pared with that of 1898. /t likely that exceptional interests wm be concentrated upon ,W e ... crop harvested in these countries this seapon. The interest will be intensified until the actual results of the J, I’® 1 ’® known bv the knowledge that the Quantity of wheat, that has been available from both these countries in past years has varied greatly in volume. During the past six years the yearly exports from Argentina have ranged m round numbers from 6,000,090 to 66,000.000 bushels, the lowest number of bushels being in 1897, and the highest in 1899. With reference to India, tbe quantity oi wheat exported by sea to foreign conntries during the corresponding years has ranged from .01 millions to ,'l(>\ million, the lowest yield being in 1836-7. and the highest in 1899-1900. It appears that the year 1897 proved disastrous to the wheat crops in both these countries, and it is unlikely, according to the "Crop Reporter." that in the present season there wilt be an appreciably larger export of wheat than in the two recent famine years m India. 1896 and 1897-98.

Wheat statistics of Argentina and India present some striking contrasts. Argentina's importance with reference to this cereal depends not upon her rank as a producer, but almost solely upon her rank as an exporter. Taking no place as a producer among seven countries, whose aggregate production amounts to over 75 per cent, of the entire wheat crop of the world, as an exporter this country in the best years has ranked second, though at a great distance, fo the United States. A scarceness of population, as compared to the area under wheat, has resulted in a nnoduction at times of from- 30 to 25 bushels per’ capita for the entire population, thereby allowing a surplus for export of as muci? as 70 per cent, of the whoie crop.

In (striking contrast with these facts are deductions to be made from the statistics of British India. As a wheat producer India ranks fourth among the nations of the world, nofcwjth.sta!iamflf that in, the best years production amounts"to less than one bushel per capita for her 300,000,000 population. As a general'rule, however, wheat forms hut little the food supplv of the masses of the Indian neople whose rr ataff of life* consists mostly of and pulse. ;The exports have ranged from about 2 to 4 per o* crop in famine years to as hisTT tis .74 oer cent, of th© crop in a year of abundance, •