FRANCE'S HARVEST.

Levin Daily Chronicle, 3 November 1917, Page 1

FRANCE'S HARVEST.

By the failure of the harvest in France the task of maintaining supplies of foodstuffs for the troops, and also for the civilian population in that country must be seriously enhanced. The outlook for the harvest must have undergone somewhat sudden transformation, for August reports mentioned that the crops were making satisfactory progress, and that prospects were maintained, although there had been heavy rains throughout the northern areas. Presumably the estimate of 'the French Food Minister that it will be necessary to import 140,000,000 bushels of cereals is intended to convey an impression of the country's total need in existing war conditions when the normal population is swollen enormously by troops of other Allied belligerents. Hence, in accordance with the measure of increase of France's wants, the requirements of the other countries of the Entente whose men are for the time being on French soil become less, and the operation demanded is merely an amendment of the basis of distribution of supplies. In 1910-11 the wheat yield in France was a very poor one, and something like 100,000,000 bushels had to be imported in order to make good the deficiency of that grain in the country. The figure mentioned by the Food Minister, therefore, indicates hardly a staggering shortage, l especially as the estimate covers all cereals, and the real perplexity of the prospect lies mainly in the difficulty of assuring safe transport of grain from Australia, Argentina, India and North America, where there will be surpluses, to the point of consumptive need. It has already been decreed that the wheat crop shall be sold at 50 f. per 100 kilos about 87s per 480 lb.) on the farm.