FARM & STATION.

Otago Witness, Issue 1700, 21 June 1884, Page 6

FARM & STATION.

-•tfrding to the evidence of Mr Henry CWi£, merchant, Liverpool, the representative of the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, before the Select Parliamentary Committee recently appointed to inquire Into the beat means of extending the East lodian railway system, the exports of wheat from India during the last five years were as follows :— IB7B 9, 1,044,70 D cwt ; 1879 80, 2,195,550 cwt ; 1880-81, 7,444,375 cwt ; 1881 2, 19,863,520 cwt ; 1882 3, 14,144,407 cwt ; and for the 10 months ending January last the exportß were 19,500,000 cwt. Previous to 878 the quantity of Indian wheat placed on 32u..opcan markets barely entitled it to quotati )n, but the marvellous increase of supplies annually since then, with a corresponding improvement in the quality, indicate an expansion in the future which must materially and permanently influence the values of cereals whether in importing or exporting countries. The whole bubject has latterly been the theme of the European and American Press, and without dissent from the conclusions that, with extended means for irrigation, and facilities for transit to the seaboard, the resources of India for the cheap production of breadstuffs are without parallel. The population under British rule in 1881 numbered 220 millions and the rate of increase is rapid. There is a vast territory awaiting cultivation were water for irrigation available, and the means for trans porting the produce to market. Contrary to preconceived notions entertained in regard to them, the natives, although suffering from disabilities the results of former misrule, are disposed to be, after their peculiar manner, industrious and plodding. As the land revenue is the principal source of income to the Indian Government, obviously, it would be a wise policy to encourage and extend cultivation throughout the vast territory under their control, by tho construction of railways and canals commensurate with the requirements of a teeming population. Much has been accomplished already, and the results fully justify enterprises of far greater magnitude. According to a footnote appended to Mr John Fowler's.article in the Nineteenth Century on "India, her Wheat and Railways," the Indian railways pay 4"6 p r cent . and this not only on the capital invested, but including arrears of interest which accrued before the linos commenced to pay. That the Imperial Parliament will sanction the undertaking of new and comprehensive reproductive works by the Indian Government may be regarded an a certainty, for no question of late years outside the internal affairs of the three kingdoms has so stirred and enlisted the sympathies of the nation. In the development of the resources of India the mercantile, commercial, and artisan classes foresee an everincreasing exchange of manufactures, free of tariff charges, for cheap breadstuff^ and other products of the East. The British farmer even will participate in the benefits. The supply and control of the wheat markets have passed from him ; maize for stock food he does not prow ; cotton cake, linseed, and linseed cake, which be uses largely for the same purpose, are mostly imported, and it is therefore of serious import to him that these materials, the consumption of which is steadily increasing, may bo procured at low rates, and preferably from within the empire. America finds an open market in Great Britain for her surplus grain, but enforces a prohibitive tariff on Britisn manufactures. In 1881-2 the American shipments of wheat to the United Kingdom were 24 per cent, under the usual amount, but the deficiency was in part met. by an increased supply from India of 12,419,145cwt in excess of what had been received in 1880-81. Other considorations apart, it is clearly to the advantage of the British people to deal with a free trade country densely populated than with a stringently protective nation, and this isanother gocd and sufficient reason why the proposals for the further development of the resources of India have been received with so much favour. But there is still a more potent, feeling ou the j sublet. In the event of w.ar food importations niieht bo interrupted or partially curtailed if the quarrel should arise with one or other of the great grain-producing countries. With India, producing even a tithe of her capabilities, the Suez Canal secure, and with supplies from Canada and the Australasian Colonies, the food question could but slightly embarrass the British Government or people. For the question may be put, when India, under present circumstances, can produce so largely, in what larger proportion would the production be were encouragement given to extend and improve tho system of cultivation, and by railways afford cheap transit to markets ? In America, as well as in these Colonies, the effects of Indian competition in the wheat markets have already been experienced, and the United States journals almost without exception ragard the position as critical. Many of them contend that even under present conditions Indian wheat can be placed at a lower rate than American on the European markets, and attribute this to the cheapness of labour in the Bast. In these Colonies the people of New ! South Wales, Queensland, and Western Australia are concerned in having low rates for wheat and flour because they are importers, but it is not so with the wheat-growers of South Australia, Victoria, and New Zealand. Wo were wont to regard the first-named Colony as the granary of Australasia, but, although its claim to the title has long since lapsed, wheatgrowing is still almost exclusively the agricultural industry by which a very large proportion of the population subsist. In one particular only has the South Australian farmer an ad- | vantage — viz , in the superior quality of his I wheat, but the average yield is only about six bushels per acre, and droughts and hot winds frequently lower this. According to the loading agricultural journal of that Colony, it has been decided that when 5s 6d per bushel can be obtained for wheat there, it will pay farmers to grow it, but very properly it is further stated that tha problem now to be solved is how to grow it profitably at 4s 6d per bushel. ■ In Victoria the average produce is considerably higher than in South Australia ; 12 bushels per acre is perhaps a liberal estimate on the average, but in both Colonies the land is soon impoyerished, and climatic influences are not so favourable f to other agricultural pursuits followed with advantage in moister and colder climates. Deeper and better cultivation, manuring, &c, &c, are suggested, but widely as the subject has been discussed, the position has been assumed that owing to .the unlooked for supplies from India and other countries wo may look in vain in the future for any permanent rise in wheat values, if even the present standard be maintained. This divergence ft om the immediate subject of this article is deemed necessary, because, it is important that farmers in fhis Colony should be apprised of the romaikabli concurrence of opinion at the present time, and which obtains alike in importing as in oxp irting countries, to the effect that the values of ureadstuffa are permanently lowered. There is, however, some consolation in the knowledge that tbo oousequeucei? will be much less

severely felt here than perhaps in any other exporting country. The average yield of wheat is very high j and ifc is tho number of bushels per acre which pays — due regard being had to quality rather than the price per bushel. Much also remains to be accomplished by careful cultivation, proper selection of seed, and diligence in harvesting, while advantages of climate afford a wider scope in agricultural pursuits than is possible in almost any other coiintry. Nevertheless, it is incumbent on us to be acquainted with the resources of a country which has primarily occasioned a resolution in the world's markets and ia in the futuredestined to ocoupy a prominent position in them. The actual resources of India as a wheatproducing country, and more especially the cost of production, were first brought prominently into notice by a controversy between the Bombay Chamber of Commerce and the directors of the Great Indian Peninsular Kailwa3'. The Bombay merchants asserted that wheat cultivation within reach of railway lines in the interior w< uld be vastly more extensive but for the unduiy heavy charges for conveying the produce to .market. The directors in reply stated that beyond what might be required for the wants of the country wheat cultivation would not be engaged in by the natives, and, furthermore, that the grain usually offered in the market was ill-conditioned, mixed, and inferior, therefore unfit for exportation. The Chamber of Commerce retorted that since the railways wore completed in one year only out of six and a half million tons total produce of wheat nearly one million tons had been shipped, and it was added that could the natives get a reasonable price for what oould be grown they could sell it and live on cheaper food, notably maize and millet. The views of the Chamber were subsequently endorsed by a resolution of the Liverpool Corn Trade Association, dated 29th March 1884, to the effect that " inasmuch as the better qualities of East India wheat are highly appreciated by English millers, who are specially adapting their machinory to its manipulation, and thereby increasing its consumption, this committee strongly supports the extension of the Indian railway system, as being calculated to develop this important and growing source of supply." Towards the end of 1883 tho Secretary of State for the Colonies requested the Indian Government to procure information in regard to wheat cultivation in India, and more particularly as to the following points s— (1) The extent to which wheat is cultivated in India ; (2) The nati»ro of the soils on which the better classes of wheat are grown arid the system of cultivation followed ; (3) Whether the best wheats are grown on irrigated or unirrigated ground ji (4) Whether the land had been long cultivated with wheat crops, and what was the average weight of crop per acre ; and (5) Whether the allegation that the productive power of the soil in somo parts of India has begun to fail is well founded or not. A very elaborate report was received in reply, an abstract from which appeared in a recent number of the Economist, but in the meantime Parliament had taken action, an Indian Hallway Committee had been appointed, one of the principal objects being " to determine the best means of extending railway communication in India, with the view of increasing the export trade in wheat from that country to the United Kingdom."

PRICES OF FOOD PRODUCTS For 1881, 1882, 1883, & part of 1884.. The following tabulated statement will explain the comparative London values of ■ the food raatoiials in which our producers are principally interested during the period mentioned. It may be observed that while the causes which have operated to lower the prices for wheat are pretty generally understood, the reason for the late decline in values of New Zealand mutton are not so, or are attributed to influences other than the real ones which affected the markets. In looking down the column under the heading'' Mutton," and taking the Ist January in each year; in 1881 tho p^ice of prime English mutton was B£d per lb ; in 1882 it was 7d per lb ; in 1883, lOd, and in 1884, B£d per lb. Although the July prices for mutton fast , year were nearly the same as in the two previous, the values throughout 1883"were, on the whole, "notably high. At the commencement of the present year a sudden and un- i expected decline in the prices of best English mutton occurred, and necessarily a lowering in values of New Zealand shipments. For tho material of the tables we are indebted to the Economist, but the prices of the mutton wholesale are given at per lb, instead of per atone, in ordor that they may be easily understood :—

Date Ilm < i! 11. IGazet Enqi 1 » Avi SRAQISS lAIN. a I s "S 3 xv. ■S 1 i o pet qr : I per qr £ Sd i per qr £ sd per qr & a d 2801b £ a d 81b s d 8b a d V 1881 Jan 1 July 2 1882 Jan 7 Julvl 1883 Jan 7 Feb3 Mar 3 A art 7 May 6 Jun 2 July 6 Au« 3 Sept 1 Ocb6 Nov3 Dec 7 1884 Jin 4 Feb2 Marl AprlS 2 8 6 2 10 0 2 111 2 6 4 111 5 1 9 3 I 010 I 3 9 1 16 0 1 15 0 3 6 i 10 1 8 8} 88 2 15 6 i 12 6 2 4 9 •i 611 11110 L 510 10 3 L Sill 2 0 f II 18 0 3 4 3 4 4 9 |5 4 7 8* & 60 2 7 0 2 7 6 2 6 6 2 6 0 2 6 0 1 6 0 2 6 0 2 5 0 2 2 6 2 2 0 2 :o 2 Oil 2 0 4 2 19 2 2 0 •2 2 10 2 3 5 2 2 « 2 3 3 1 3 2 2 0 2 2 0 3 I 0 0 112 8 112 9 113 5 113 2 112 4 I 9 3 I 9 8 LlO 0 110 5 114 0 114 7 112 3 1 0 6 1 oio 117 118 13 2 12 5 1 3 5 I 310 I 2 2 01911 013 7 019 7 I 13 6 t-13 C I 13 C I 14 0 I 14 0 I 14 0 I 13 0 I 13 0 1 13 0 I 12 0 1 12 0 I 11 6 3 0 i i[ i 2 i 3 3 6 3 i 3 7 t 9 3 i 3 10 3 7 3 4 15 & 5 6 5 0 5 0 4 11 6 2 5 9 5 3 5 6 5 2 5 2 10 88 83 «I 94 91 8J 85 8| 2 2 0 2 10 2 10 I 18 6 119 0 117 9 117 3 117 7 112 0 112 0 Lll 7 111 3 019 3 0 9 6 01910 019 6 I 11 0 I 11 0 I 11 0 1 10 Oi 3 6 3 3 3 4 3 3 5 2 5 l. 4 10 4 11 8J 8| 8 8