The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-09-25 00:00:00

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England with her nearest neighlrertirmsetnext
agriculturist, die produces per aerel thills-and a
quarters of wheat against the Frenchman's two or two
and a half; and so of other grain. But when she is
doing her best she can do no more. Strange to say,
Mr. Dodson saw nothing alarming in an area which
cannot be enlarged, in efforts which cannot be sur7)
passed, and in a deficiency already immense and cer-
tain to increase continually. His tone was most con-
gratulatory, jubilant, and hopeful. There was a pas-"
sing fear about the Harvest, but the sun came out, and
remained out, and so the Harvest has been well got
in, and all is now as it should be. Of
course, Mr. Dodson was speaking to agricultur-
ists, but had he thought a dependence on the
foreigner to the extent of sixteen or seventeen millions
of quarters a perilous crisis, he could not but have
alluded to that skeleton in the house." Mr. Caird
says that if the next Harvest comes at the usual time,
we shall have to obtain from abroad eleven millions of
quarters. We have actually received, he says,
11,700,000 within the last harvest year, and the ques-
tion now is whether we are likely to import as much
in this new harvest year as in the last. Last year he
estimated our foreign requirements at nine millions,
the fact being that with a month's consumption more
to provide for than could then be anticipated, we
have imported the larger amount above stated. It
is not England, however, but the world that now
defies calculation. Mr. Caird has condensed a mass
of informatton into a brief and masterly summary of
the wheat-producing and wheat-exporting power of the
whole world. He is courageous enough to be decided
and particular., If any of our young readers wish to
make a first step in statistical science, they cannot do
better than lay by them for future reference Mr.
Caird's survey, and notice next year, as they will be
able to do, how far the respective predictions have been
verified, and, if any shall have failed, why. We believe
that they will find the whole earth, once so vast and
mysterious, a very measurable and calculable affair,
awl that Mr. Caird has pretty well mastered its present
food producing powers.

It may be a secret hankering after the old system,
when almost everything was indefinite or unknown,
and the known the only thing not to be depended on,
but we will confess to a belief that the world will
always give out more upon presstfre. A very small
rise of price in our market tells amazingly upon coun-
tries where money is scarce, where it is more a matter
of account than a thing a man can see and handle,
and where fixed deductions leave out of every pay-
ment a very small margin for the nominal recipient.
It would be most interesting to see whether a rise
of 10s. a quarter would really fail to extract from
the rye-eating population of Russia and Germany
more than a tenth or eleventh of the wheat-crop—
all they send us now; still more, whether it would
fail to draw hither from France more than a fortieth
of her own wheat. She is holding on for good
prices, Mr. Caird thinks, and, notwithstanding her
reverses, is not an easy seller. We once received
1,800,000 quarters from her at 505.; but that, it seems,
is not likely soon to recur. But we have to go further
for our chief purveyors. When people talkof our put-
ting our fortunes, our lives, and our national-existence
into the hands of foreigners, they may not be always
aware that it is the citizen of the United States and
the Canadian whom we have made the masters of
our destiny. More than half our foreign wheat
comeg, from them, and it follows that the Amen.
can Harvest is more important to us than this
Irish or Scotch, and it may be said, nearly as im-
portant as the English itself. The difficulty of
any estimate lies, not in the remoteness, for
distance is nothing in these days, but in the
fact that every item of information comes through
those who are deeply interested in keeping the truth
to themselves. However, they cannot quite conceal
it, for they buy and sell, and the public prices tell
tales. Mr. Caird thinks the prospect not so cheerful
in that direction. There have been short crops both
on the Eastern and Western shotes, and the question
is said to be everywhere one of deficiency, more or
less. Let us hope that it is solnewhat over early to
know the truth when the Harvest is scarcely yet in.
At any rate, from one quarter or another we cannot
doubt that our wants will be well supplied.