Omaha daily bee., 1889-05-31
OIL AND WHEAT.
Tee Vast Quantities OF Both Bein /,
ExpOrted bY Russia.

Exported by Russia.
The fastest item Of commercial news
from abroad is the statement that Rus
sia is going into the business of sailing
pork for the English trade.
Russia has made great progress in de-
veloplng her natural resources in re-
cont years, and she is by great odds the
most active and the biggest competitor
America has in the worlds markets for
the products OF the soil. She has
seemed to learn lessons from this coun-
try, and to learn them quickly. She
has already cut great slices out of two
of Americas export industries, and is
now preparing to bite off n portion OF o
third. AS competitors OF this country,
the new republics of South America,
the third continent of the far east, and
crude-method India, with her vast area
of arabic land, and her masses of igno-
rant, slow-learning laborers, are OF lit
tie account beside that apotheosis of
despotism styled Russia.
The most marked development of
Russia's industries is in the product of
mineral oils. She used to import mil
millions Of gallons from the United
States yearly. About fifteen years ago
her own fields began to be developed
and now the annual production OF Rus
sian naphtha is 1850 million pounds.
or this 612 million pounds are exported
to countries once supplied by the United
States. The American trade in this
commodity has not materially declined
in the face of this rapidly-rising COM
petition, because the demand for oils
has increased with the increase IN pro-
duction. The American output and ex-
ports have little more than held their
own for eight or ten years, while the
Russian production has grown one-third
larger, and the exports one-ha!f larger
yearly.
The enlargement in Russia's trade in
cereals is next to Americas in it's re-
markable rapidity. In twenty years
her exports of grain has tripled. In
five years her production has increased
so per cent. The manner in which
American spectators were disappointed
this year by the immense quantities of
wheat pouring into England from Rus
sia is we'll known. The expectation of
a large shortage in the worlds supply
led the Chicago spectators to advance
values so per cent. 1t was supposed
that England would have to come to
America for wheat and would pay what
ever was asked. But instead she found
Russia ready to supply her needs with
vast stores of old wheat added to her
big crop Of new grain, and despite the
extreme height of the American prices
Englishmen have paid little more for
American wheat this year than they
paid last year, averaging values. This
years experience showed very plainly
that Americas dominion in the worlds
wheat markets has come to All
end. Great Britain takes the bulk
of the surplus wheat OF those
countries which raise more than
Hnr M
Russia this year have been four times
those of last year. She has gotten more
from Russia than from America and
more from Russia than from the Indies
and all other countries together.
Her success in the wheat trade and
the naphtha trade has encouraged Rus
sia to try other lines. She now proposes
to try for share of Americas vast
business in meats. Her live stock in
dustry has not grown bit in twenty
years. Cattle have been poorly fed and
inferior. But the climatic conditions
OF South Russia are represented to bes
highly favorable to the raising OF swine.
The government has taken hold of the
matter. An appropriation for an eX-
perimental slaughtering house has been
made and the imperial banks have been
empowered to render financial assist
ance to the new industry. The eXper-
iment is one of enormous Importance to
the packers of this country. Their ex-
port business amounts to S60, 900, 900 an
nually: If good portion of this is to
be delivered over to Russia, it will be
in order to ask: What next2
Meantime, is it not something of a
peculiar anomaly that the chief store
houses for supplying the products of
the soil to the world should be, respect
lively, the freest nation and the most
despotic one on the globe?