The Timaru Herald. TUESDAY, APRIL 7, 1885.

Timaru Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 3284, 7 April 1885, Page 2

The Timaru Herald. TUESDAY, APRIL 7, 1885.

There is no subject probably of '. greater interest to this neighborhood i than the price of wheat. It is a question i m which to a large extent the pros- ' perity of the whole district is bound ] up, and the farmers are doubly auxious ! on the subject just now seeing that at 1 last they have been favored with a good < harvest, and might reasonably hope, i with an improvement m the market, to 1 make up for the losses and discourage- ] ments of two or three bad seasons m 1 succession. So far the dead level of ( the London Corn Exchange has been i depressing m its monotony. There 4 was a slight stiffening m prices at the height of the diplomatic crisis £ with Russia, but the improvement, slen- t der as it was, vanished as soon as' c the Northern Power began to show ] signs of a sudden conversion to a policy t of peace. Some farmers and holders s of wheat, looking at their heavy stocks v of golden grain, and remembering that r during the Crimean War, wheat reached t as much aa 83s per quarter, may be c strongly tempted to wish that Russia c had not shown herself quite so pacific c all at once, just as John Bull had r strung himself up to full fightiug pitch, a Apart from the question of war, which d at best is a desperate remedy for such an i unpleasant state of affairs as the present, d what are the chances of an improve- t ment inthe unpromisingontlookforagri- ; culturists? On this subject we have read with much interestaletter written by Sir James Oaird to Tlie Times. The writer has given over thirty years' study £ to agriculture and the British markets, jj and there could be no authority whose opinion is entitled to more weight. Sir ( , James Caird first made his name by g his exhaustive reports on the condition > of Ireland m 1849, which he made at r. the request of Sir Robert Peel. He I was immediately afterwards seized upon I: by The Times, and commissioned to conduct an enquiry into the state of " English agriculture. He visited every ' county m England, and published a 1 series of most able and interesting r. letters embodying the results of his 0 observations. These were subsequently t reprinted m book form, and translated I into French, German, and -Swedish, [ besides being largely circulated m the c United States. He then laid great j stress on the much more rapid t advance m the value of dairy c produce and meat m Great Britain than < of corn, and pointed out the wisdom of f the British farmer extending his efforts fc m the production of the former rather j| than of tbe latter. Time and experience * have fully borne out the sagacity of the a advice on this and other subjects which a he then tendered to the agricultural j community. " . Of course the present phenomenal j condition of the wheat market could a not escape the attention of such an a acute observer as Sir James Caird, and * hence we have the letter from his pen n to which reference has already been v made, and which is accorded by our contemporary the dignity of large type. Sir James has no hesitation m * stating plainly whathe believesto be the $ cause of the existing depression. He a says : — l The present low price of wheat is clearly the resnlt of a large crop m all the wheatproducing countries of tho world, upon an * increasing acreage, stimulated year by year by ungenial seasons and good prices m Western . Europe, and by an equally constant reduction m tho cost of transport by land and sea. The full wheat crop of 1884 m this country, though the oxtent was 450,000 acres below tho a average of the preceding ten years, exceeded S the annual average produce 01 thase years by. t more than a million quarters. In probably \ the same ratio was this the case m Western 1 Europo generally. We are tho only people [ who require always to import a large pro- * portion of our consumption of wheat, and as t there is at present hardly any other market 1 for the world'B surplus, the price has for-the f time fallen below its true coat. Nor can thore f bo much improvement m price until that . surplus is gradually worked off. ; ' This is clear, to the point, and bears ] upon it the impress of common sense. t Wheat reached a high level m 1877, as | much as 68s 9d per quarter being i recorded, and from that time a •< a good average was maintained year by i year till 1883, when a decided decline j set m. It stands to reason that this " succession of high prices would have a , marked effect m stimulating production 1 m all parts of the world, and this, l , coupled with a good harvest last yeai', 1 has resulted m the market being com- 1 pletely glutted. Now, however, a | counteracting process has set m. We ] 1 know how the area laid down m wheat 1 m this colony has been restricted this j year, and what has taken place here < has occurred m other grain growing . , countries. In recent years, England ' 1 has derived its chief supplies from the ' United States, Russia and India. In j 1 1884 there was a reduction m price | > of 14 per cent as compared with L 1883, and this was at once followed ; 1 by a reduction m the quantity received 1 respectively from those countries m : 1884, of 12 per cent from the United '. States, 60 per cent from Russia, and 26 per cent from India. The last har- , vest m America was one of the best ever known there. After this statement , : New Zealand farmers will probably be amused to learn that the average yield 1 was 13 bushels per acre, which it ap- ; : pears is sufficient to Bend a Yankee I farmer half-wild with jubilation. Tho • crop was worth on the spot 2s 6d per 1 bushel, giving an average value per . l acre of 32s 6d. Sir James Caird ; adds — 1 • The price is said to be tho lowest ever re- ; ' ported In that country. And this is felt to be* . a perfectly natural rosult of the stimulus given 3 to production all over the world, by the m I orease of price due to the unprecedented series . 1 of infertile seasons whioh have prevailed m : 1 Europe. They expect that the recent great ; reduotion of price will soon reduce the area, 1 and relieve over-production. And they ac- ' cordingly report the extent of winter wheat : now sown for the coming crop, aa reduced m ' nearly every State, the whole reduotion 1 amounting to 8 per cent m those States where j winter wheat is grown. ; : The low price of corn has, of course, not been without its effect m this [ colony, but here our most des pressed districts are m a state ■ s of rollicking prosperity compared 1 with some of the wheat-growing j States of America. In Dakota, we • j learn, the farmers are nearly bankrupt, owing for tools and implements, and,

having to sell their wheat m that distant region at Is (id to 2s a bushel, the poor fellows are utterly down, bankrapt m profit and m their hopes. The rates of transportation are brought to a figure really below the cost, and it is believed by competent authorities to be impossible for wheat to be produced at the rates now prevalent. " The much larger diminution of wheat received by us from Russia and India," adds Sir James Caird, " seems to confirm this opinion, and to show that the present very low price is exceptional, and below its true value." The same testimony is borne by recent visitors to Manitoba. Colonel Wheatley was strongly impressed with the intense earnestness of the farmei'S, m hard work, and economical use of machine help, both there and m the Western States south of the Canadian boundary, but they too are impecunious, and are charged ruinous rates of interest on advances which are repaid, as m India, by delivery of the crop to the moneylender. They look to wheat alone for a return, working the same land over and over again, the produce of which, after Pour years, declines both m quantity md quality. " Summarising the position, it would lppear that the present low rates are me to an over-stimulated production :aused by a succession of high prices. [t would also appear r that. already the decline m the market, has caused a severe contraction m the area laid under vheat.' The effect of this contraction nay be neutralised to some extent by ;he good yield- with which many iountries seem to have been favored luring the last harvest, but there is 'very reason to hope that we have now •cached the bottom of the low prices, md that if not immediately, yet at no listant date, a substantial improvement s bound to be brought about. No loubt the New Zealand farmer will say, he sooner the better.