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beasts that stand seventeen hands high, whose rush 

 is Hke that of a broad-gauge express, and who yet 

 scamper over rocks and ravines almost hke goats. 



Greater cleanliness in harvesting, and greater care 

 in separating grains* and seeds intended for or likely 

 to reach foreign markets, would probably do much to 

 improve the demand for our agricultural products, and 

 doubtless some endeavours will be made by the Agri- 

 cultural Department to impress this on the people, both 

 by precept and by example at their own farms, but 

 this is typical of a whole class of reforms, on which it 

 is needless to touch, as they must mainly be brought 

 about by private enterprise and by the pressure of pur- 

 chasers. Could we only secure a fairly steady and 

 moderately large export trade in wheat and barley, for 

 instance, there is no doubt that in a very few years 

 the better prices given by the purchasing agents of 

 exporting firms would effect a complete change in the 

 existing slovenly practices, but unfortunately it would 

 seem that, at any rate until the more easily acces- 

 sible virgin lands of Western America are more or less 

 exhausted (and they do appear to be exhausting these 

 in a wickedly wasteful manner), it will only be under 

 favour of bad seasons elsewhere, or of wars interfering 

 with the natural course of trade, that our wheat is 

 likely to find a wide European market. t 



* It is not merely that grains of two species should not be 

 muddled up together as now, but that the different qualities of 

 each grain, e.g. red and white, soft and hard wheat, and the like, 

 should be kept distinct. 



t It has, however, been asserted that a great deal of this 

 wheat has been put into the European market below its cost 



