The Feilding Star. TUESDAY,DECEMBER 6 1883 Farming Prospects

Feilding Star, Volume IV, Issue 79, 6 December 1883, Page 2

The Feilding Star. TUESDAY,DECEMBER 6 1883 Farming Prospects

Wjutixg of the condition of farming i.i Kew Zea^nd, the Canterbury Times bays that we enjoy many ad^ outages not possessed in the same de g::f eby farmers in other countries, but ye have also some disadvantages nut of an insignificant character which some of our rivals in the produce m? rkets of the world do not suffer from in a like degree. This country occupies a position near the centre of ibe water surface of the globe, and it» producers are further removed f.*j+a the } «aiUng markets of the world ! than thot>e of other countries. This i obs. icle is b»ing rapidly reduced to a miuimum by the splendid means of j carriage now available, but however rnpidly and certainly the voyage between port and port may be performed, additional space to be traversed tells upon the cost of carriage. There is ; nothing like a good market for the farmer. Lacking this advantage, there is niuch agricultural produce which cannot bej turned to profitable account, and there are crops for which the land is suitable, bit which cannot be grown c ccept in the neighborhood of a large consuming population. The farmers are therefore vitally interested in the development of tite various xnanufactn i ing industries. As a wheat exporting country we labor under serious disadvantages. Our production is not large enough to allow of the most economical system of handling the gram. The uncertainty of the climate also tells against us heavily as m; heat producers. We growUarge av.ra^e yields, but there is no cernvinty as to the quality of the grain, la the great wheat territories of America, although the average yield is smaller, there is more certainty about the quality of the produce. New Zealand will never take a front rank, eve i in a small way, as a wheat exporting country, and the time is not far distiut when our production of wheat will be confined tp the wants of our own population. The life' d|f a man who is compelled by circumstances to make a livmg by wneat growing aloie is not an exuberantly happy one. A mutton and wool grower, or a farmer who makes these his primary, and g.ain his secondary resource, is, other things being eqinvl, a much happier man. Wool has, for many years past, taken the leading place in our list of exports, and will in all probability continue to hold that position. The export trade in mutton will tend greatly to swell the annual production of wool, for the reason that a paying price for mutton will enable wool to be profitably grown in cases in which |it has not been hitherto. It does not i sound encouraging when we hear of the Home market being glutted by one or two cargoes of mutton, but when we consider the quality of the mutton, and the price which our shippers are prepared to take, in comparison with the price of English mutton, together with the rate of consumption in Great Britain, it is absurd to talk about the market being glutted by the arrival of a few thousand carcasses. It merely shows that the means of distribution are not yet complete. If these fail in England, the price of meat in Paris-^-1/1 to 2/6 per Bb — should furnish the refrigerating company with a fresh field of operations.