The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1885. THE PRICE OF WHEAT.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1419, 17 November 1885, Page 2

The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1885. THE PRICE OF WHEAT.

We have all along held that the price of wheat would have to go up, and there is every prospect of our anticipations being realised sooner than we expected. Wheat has already sprang 2d per bushel in Sydney, and we venture to think it will not go back again. “ The Man of Mark Lane,” the groat authority that writes for the Mark Lane Express, a paper which devotes special attention to such subjects, writes as follows : “ Farmers, hold your wheat—if you can. This is the advice which, for the first time in my life, I venture to give. Since I have been acquainted with farming there has not been a year when the policy of holding wheat was so strikingly desirable as it is this season. In view of future supplies, current prices are like an insult to growers. In America there! is about the worst crop on record ; in South Russia a failure of crops is reported ; in the rest of Europe, including the United Kingdom, the aggregate yield will probably be under the average ; and Australasia has very little more to send us this year. There is a good crop in India it is true, but it wfll not come here freely at current pnees. Whence, then, shall we get the 16 or 17 million quarters we shall probably require to import ? We receive wheat in small quantities from so many sources that there is no fear of scarcity ; but we shall certainly have to give a higher price than we are now offering long before the end of the cereal year jut-t begun, in order to supply the population with bread,” As regards India, we learn that floods have played' fearful havoc with the crops there, and that instead of wheat being plentiful there is every prospect of famine. Farmers may therefore take heart once more ; the day is not far distant when they will get good prices for grain again. There is one remark in the above quotation from “ The Man of Mark Lane ” worth remembering. He says that grain is not likely to come from India at current prices, meaning of course that it will not pay. Ho it an authority on such aubjects, and when he says it will not pay the Indiana to send grain at current prices we may rely on it that it must be true. He would not otherwise make such a statement in a paper specially devoted to dealing with such matters. Now this proves what wehave so frequently urged—viz., that if we cannot grow grain in South Canterbury profitably no part of the world can. There cannot be the least doubt of it. In the beginning of the season we strongly advised farmers to put in grain this year ; and we repeat the advice ns regards next year. We feel convinced that next year’s crop will sell at pijetty close on 4s per bushel. It is possible many English farmers may takfcUhc

advice of “ The Man of Mark Lane,” and hold their wheat, but that will not prevent good prices being realised. Once the prices commence to go up a reaction will set in, and whatever stocks English farmers have in hand will scarcely make a difference. The tide must turn before long ; next year will see a change, so we strongly advise farmers to sow largely next season, Wool is down, and not likely to go op ; frozen meat will not go up, if it does not go down ; so the best prospect the farmer has is wheat.