THE FEILDING CHRONICLE ADVERTISER. SATUDAY,JULY 26, 1879. THE WHEAT CROP.

Manawatu Times, Volume III, Issue 60, 26 July 1879, Page 3

THE FEILDING CHRONICLE ADVERTISER. SATUDAY,JULY 26, 1879. THE WHEAT CROP.

who Lave had much, expenenco i^ coljOmal Kußbaiidry 'will not have failed to notice that the farmers have .the unhappy, knack of doing the right thing at the. time, thui materially djsturbißg.^hebakrice that should exist between,' «up.ply- and. demand. ■ Thus,, if any-'particujac. article fetch an. exceptionally, high price, one. year, , all of them ieem bent upon raising '-a$ much of it the ngxtseasoa as thisy.! iiidividually, can, and the consequence is that the market is glutted and prices fall below the average. Then again, on $m <ril*? km&i if we prica of/any p^ r .

ticular cereal or root crop r«le remarkably low, the farmers, one and all, fight shy of the non-paying commodity. This has been the case during the jfist two seasons, and, as far as appearances go, bids f lir to repeat itself m the present one. The high price whiek wheat commanded during the j European war, two year* ago, induced the colonial farmers' to put m an exceptional^ large area-with wheat, and the consequence was" that, the grain which, furnishes us riwlth the staff of life was m many instances sold aL less than it conld be broiigbt into the mavket for. This is ixo mere figur • of .speech, for one large grower assured us that after carefully taking every item. into account, the price he obtained for his wheat exactly equalled its cost, bufr "he lost the price of the bafis." This of course is very disheartening to our early-and-late toilers,, and it is not surprising to find that this crop bids fair this season to be almost entirely « tabooed*'' by the gi'eat majority of dur farmers, From octi^r demonstration, and from enquiries that we have mad.6 we lea.m £h.a.t a much less "urea of land has been brought under the plough this year than m former seasons, and that of this reduced a,vea a smaller proportion, than usual will be devoted to wheat fey the farmerss generally. This is to ac regretted, as they wijl i.lhereby put themselves out of a position to take adyantago p-i auy Untoward circxiTistances" which; y may a.ffect ihe harvest at Hojme, m Europe, oy m America. By cable tv« \earn that the wheat crop m Esgla.nd has been so seriously affected hy oontinuous rains that grave tip prehensions ,are beginning to be felt with regard to. the hairvei^ j prices have lisen, and according to the latest cablegram, were *\ hardening;" In France, owing to a simjlar cause, it is estimated that the yield, -mil be 6,000,000 bushels lesls/ t%a ihe consumption. Under these circumstancei prices must still go up, and by next spiing— a time when our whea,t would be available— we shall expect to. see them at a pretty considerable tallfiGrure. Had our farmers acted, w,ith greater moderation they Tfcioiild. / not have, brought about such' a ruinous fall m mices last year, and they would now have been m a better pp^ition to benefit bytlie bad harvest m Europe, which, by the latest advices, seems almost m; evitabie. It is not altogether 100 late to remedy— in some degree,, at least— the latter evil, if they apply themselves at once to the task, : and"we can but hope that the lesson win eh the experience of the last three years should twach will not be lost upon them.