The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1896-12-09
The Future of Wheat.

While very little wheat is grown in
Vermont, and high whebt means high
flour and increased expense in living to
our farmers, yet indirectly it is bene-
q TO the farmers of this stat tie to have
wheat high. For when the western
farmers get good prices for wheat, they
stick to wheat raising; but when wheat
is low, they go into dairying and CON-
pete directly with us in our butter mar
kets. 1t is better for all the people in
this country to have the western farm
ers prosper, because they have power
to do much harm by voting for popu-
list principles and the like, which they
will have little temptation to do if they
are prosperous. Whit then are the
prospects for better wheat prices? A
late editorii in the Rural Ne,o Yorker
says:
1.-THE English spectators evidently
believe that the wolld's increase Of
wheat production is not keeping pace
with the increase of population. The
Mark Lane Erpress puts it in this way:
The whole epoch of overproduction is
clearly on the wane. Argentina, the
last great factor on that side of the &C.
count, lie found to have arrived on the
scene oil ly just in time to balance the
declining wheat exports Of India and
Australia. In America and in the
United States, wheat cultivation is
maintained, but the population il
creases year / y year, while the yield of
wheat is stationary Thus overproduc-
ton is vanishing danger, and with the
close of the present century will have
vanished altogether That is about
the situation as viewed from the Lon.
don grain markets. England is the
greatest wheat buyer of the world, and
it is evident that her merchants expect
to be obliged to pay more for wheat
and flour in the future"
This is the matter in nutshell. 1t
is not easy to learn the exact condition
of affairs in place 30 far away as
Argentina, but it is known that this
year the crops there are poor, and
also that wheat is being shipped from
the Pacific coast to India and Australia.
Evidently the worlds wheat crop will
no more than supply the demand for
year or two, and prospects are very
good for the maintenance of better
prices for some time to come.
AS to the amount of the shortage
this year, the Il flowing from the Amer
ican Agriculturist is the latest avail
able information:
"The shortage in the 1896 worlds |
wheat crop is now universally acknowl- |
edged in trade circles. The extent of
this it is difficult to determine, author |
tiles differing greatly. An average
taken Of three estimates made by
European officials and trade specialists |
places the worlds wheat harvest at
2 $3.50 million bushels compared with
2 548 millions in '95. According to these
figures, which are only an estimate at
the best, the latest crop is smaller by
159 mi lions than the amount harvested
in all wheat-producing countries in '95.
These estimates are subjected to con.
siderable modification, especially go far
as the crops of such countries as Russia
are concerned, where methods of re-
porting are most crude. The import.
ant fact is known that there is short
age, and this must be met in large part
through exports from the United States.
Other expert estimates of the wo' Ids
crop, perhaps as worthy Of credence as
the reports above indicated, point to
shortage compared with that Of year
ago all the way up to 1856 millions"
SOuTH CAROLINA'a tea product for