The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-03-15 00:00:00

THE IMPORTATION OF FOOD.

In an article on "The Agricultural Outlook," the
Daily Telegraph says:
The Board of Trade returns for February show that
animals imported for food during that month were of
the value of £774,017, being an increase of .2133,623
compared with the value of those imported in the
corresponding month of last year. These figures are
not devoid of significance, as they no doubt indicate
that under present circumstances of an abundance of
maize in the United States, the Americans are
sending more cattle forward than they did a
,year ago. Still, this need form no argument on
the moot point of the Cattle Disease Bill now
before Parliament. The meat from any foreign
country that at present comes in as live• animals
would probably be sent in just the same quantity
in the form of dead meat were the importation of live
animals entirely discountenanced. The imports of
wheat and flour have, on the contrary, fallen off
considerably under the natural influences of more
plentiful home production in the better crop of 1883
and the low prices lately current in our markets. The
total imports of wheat in the past month were
3,363,222 cwt., against 4,516,181 cwt. in February,
1883. The imports of flour have also decreased, as
they appear to be 1,182,008 cwt. against 1,845,110 for
the corresponding month of last year. In the discus-
sion introduced by Mr. J. 11. Turner, of West Suffolk,
at the Central Chamber of Agriculture, on Tuesday,
on local taxation and what he termed one-sided Free
Trade, he proposed to transfer five millions in a round
lump from local taxation to the Imperial Exchequer,
and to provide the Chancellor of the Exchequer with
means for making up this sum, partly by taxing
foreign flour 2s. per cwt., alleging that the
milling interest in this country is at present very
greatly damaged by a large increase in the con-
sumption of American flour, while the prices of
millers' offal has gone up .E 2 per ton in the English
market owing to scarcity, to the detriment of agricul-
tural consumers. According to the figures quoted
above, it becomes tolerably apparent, however, that
the American flour import has already attained larger
proportions than it may be expected to have in future.
India is outstripping America in the supply of wheat
,to the English market, and will probably be able to
-.nd immense shipments at such exceeding low rates
the Americans will be unable to compete either
with wheat or flour. That this is a poor outlook for
the English wheat-grower it must be confessed, but
arable-land farmers must endeavour to grow some-
thing else—green crops and roots for dairying, stock
breeding and meat making, at which very satisfactory
returns may still be gained. lathe interesting discussion
on Mr. Turner's proposition Lord Carrington admitted
that he had lost £lOOO during the last year by farm-
ing about 1000 acres of land, from which he had
formed the conclusion that rents ought everywhere to
come down. One of the Suffolk farmers thereupon
told his lordship it was no question of rent, as he
realised loss by .£4 per acre on all the wheat he
grew last year than what he had been accustomed to
derive from his wheat crops a few years since. This
would be a sufficient answer if wheat-growing were
the only resource of the British arable farmer, but it
is fortunately quite otherwise, and they will one and
all no doubt by sheer compulsion have to move out
of the old ruts and cease to depend so much on that
grain.

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fitimt

Aw EPICTIRII—A gentleman fond of good living
refused to start his colt for the "two-year-old stakes,"
on the ground that if he won them they wouldn't be
worth the eating
On Monday two men named Robert Flockart Vickers
and William Innes were found guilty at the High Court
of Justiciary, Edinburgh, of murdering John Fortune,
a gamekeeper, and John blcDiarmid, rabbit trapper on
the Earl of Rosebery's estate, at Bedside, in December
last. Sentence of death was passed on the prisoners,
and the execution was appointed to take place in Edin-
burgh on the 31st inst.
The society for regulating and forwarding the vast
stream of German emigration in America has 490
lodges and about 30,000 active members. The emi-
grants, however, bring their troubles with them. A
number of fatal cases of trichinosis have recently bee*
reported from the Western States; they have all
occurred among foreign resideuto,who have eaten their
pork uncooked.

simmin