Farming Prospects.

Otago Witness, Issue 1704, 19 July 1884, Page 15

Farming Prospects.

In an article on "The Present Depression, from an Agricultural Point of View, the Canterbury Weekly Press makes the following remarks :-Not many years ago wheat was selling in the Ohristchurch market at 2s 9d per bushel, and 5s was all that could, be had for crossbred hoggets. At that that time farming was at a very low ebb indeed; soon better prices prevailed, and New Zealand wheats Wan to find their wa^r into the British market. Wheat growing became the order of the day. The introduction of double stubble furrow ploughs lowered the cost of production materially and at laat the advent of the Sape? and binder rendered the farmer practiSlly independent of the labour market-the greatest hindrance in the past. Wheat growine was then in the ascendant, and continued to be until the introduction of the trozen meat trade and the much-talked-of production of wheat on the plains of India. These, coupled with two unfavourable seasons, aggravated by low Driceß, have caused those engaged in farmine to begin to inquire aB to whether exclusive wheat trrowing is likely to be as profitable in the future as a mixed system of farming. They have come to the conclusion that it will not be bo, as may be gleaned from a perusal of the agricultural statistical returns recently issued by the Government. . . . . . Now we have evidently turned over a new leaf in our agricultural history. Those who have studied coming events from the light of past experiences, go so far as to assert that the exportation of wheat will almost cease for New Zealand within the next few years. We are not, however, prepared to endorse this extreme view, but we will predict that wheatgrowing can only be carried on successfully on the best wheat lands, and that all second-rate Boils will have to be devoted to roots and pasWe have before us a recent

ture copy of the Economist, containing a most instructive article on the " History of British Agriculture." It is interesting inasmuch as it shows the various phase 3 through which agriculture has passed in that country since tae commencement of the present century, which is very remarkable when compared with our own short history. Referring to the growth of wheat we find that formerly 4,000,000 acres was the average acreage under that cereal, in 1883 2,700,000 was the area ; in former years the average price of wheat was 503 per quarter, now its value is not more than 40s. All this has been brought about by foreign competition, and it is only by the application of science, a large reduction of rents, and the production of such things as can best cope with importation, that the British farmer has been able to hold his own. A study of these considerations must force the conviction upon us that we ourselves are just now, like our British brethren, feeling the effects of a changing 1 condition of things, so that the sooner we grapple with things as they are and inevitably must be, the better it will be for those engaged in farming, and for the Colony at large.