THE WHEAT CROP IN ENGLAND AND THE UNITED STATES.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume V, Issue 240, 7 December 1877, Page 13

THE WHEAT CROP IN ENGLAND AND THE UNITED STATES.

Wheat is dearer now than it has been, we believe, for many years, and there are, of course, those who say that it must get dearer yet. The home harvest is said to be generally below the average. We have had all through the middle and northern parts of the Island a most tempestuous season ; crops will be exceptionally late, and on many soils exceptionally poor, and the outlook is gloomy. Add to the position at home the fact that the French harvest is but barely equal to the requirements of the country at the very best view, and that it is therefore not unlikely that France may have to be a considerable buyer abroad ; that the yield in Spain is, though showing a surplus, not equal to expectation ; that the Russian crop, though good, is likely to be difficult to get at, through the war, and that all supplies from the valley of the Danube are cut off from the same cause, and we have a serious conjunction of causes all tending to support the view that bread may be dear. The most favourable estimate of the home wheat crop which we have seen — that of Mr H. Kains-Jackson, no inconsiderable authority — gives us barely twelve million quarters, or hardly half what we require for food or stock purposes, and if the harvests of Europe are, with the exception of that of Hungary, either indifferent or inaccessible, it is evidently a serious problem to know whence this deficiency is to be supplied. *■ * * We want, it may be conceded, in round figures at least eleven million quarters of wheat between now and this time next year. Where is it to be had ? The United States alone profess to be able to supply the whole of the immense quantity. They claim to have a surplus of exportable grain of over twelve million quarters, and this they will be ready to let us have at a price. This is merely the official estimate, it is true, and may therefore be falsified, but there can be no doubt that the American surplus will be very large in nearly all the States of the Union except California. — London Spectator.