Wheat Crop Prospects.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XII, Issue 2420, 31 July 1891, Page 3

Wheat Crop Prospects.

The London "Daily News " of June 12 reports:—"The market continues to be overweighted by the immense bulk of wheat afloat, which is given in^ Beerbohm's List as amounting to 5,587 ; 000 quarters for Europe against 3,607,00 i quarters last year, and 2,034,000 quarters the previous year. For the United Kingdom alone the quantity 'm sight' is 3,170,000 quarters, against 2,850,000 quarters last year, and when the quantity which must inevitably be diverted to the Continent is deducted, the net quantity ( eventually to arrive m this country will be actually less than last year. £t is, , however, sufficient for requirements. The cttect'of this gigantic supply on passage to j Europe is great. On the other hand the speculator reckons upon greatly increased wants, and is willing to pay more for distant arrivals than for wheat on the spot. The French Government, too, is recognising the fact that France will this year reap oneof the shoitost harvests on record. The Senate wished to make an imme- J diate application of the Jaw which reduces the import duty on wheat from 8s 8d to 5s 3d per quarter instead of waiting until August Ist, as was originally intended, but the Chamber of Deputies to-day refused to make any alteration, and the bill will therefor* be returned to the Senate. The deficiency m the French crop is now commonly accepted as likely to reach 16,000.000 quarters. It may now be assumed with tolerable safety that England and France combined will have to buy no less than 35,000,000 quarters of wheat fiom abroad next season to satisfy their current requirements. With such a prospect nothing seemt likely or possible to prevent higher prices m the future. The English crop, so far, is not unpromising, but cannot m any case be a good wie ; and it is moreover so backward that it may finally prove much more deficient than is at present thought. The English crop is only about 9,000,000 quarters, so that a 10 per cent, oi? even a 20 per cent, deficiency would be insignificant compared with the failure of the French crop. "The Washington Bureau announces today that the American wheat crop promises to rather exceed 500,000,000 bushels which disposes of all previous exaggerated reports that a fM)0 s OOO,OOO bushel crop would lie reaped. For the past five years the crops with the exports m each season (ending June 30) have been as follows : — Exports, Crop, Wheat and Flour. Bushels Quarters 1891 ... 505,000,000 1890 ... 399,260,000 12,000,000 1889 ... 490,500,000 13,500,000 1888 ... 416,000,000 9,026,000 1887 ... 456,000,000 11,963,000 At a pinch the United States may therefore spare next season for Europe 16,600,000qr5. Where the remaining 30,000,000qrs which European countries will absolutely require will be obtainable from is a question difficult to answer. The outlook, m fact, is more serious when the matter is examined than appears on the face of it, especially as it is now certain j that the Russian crop will be at most an average one, yielding, say, ten to twelve million quarters, for export."