LEADING FEATURES OF THE WHEAT INDUSTRY 185 
gradually passed away, and the country adopted the 
small holding* for good or ill. 
2. Reasons for Choosing 1895 as the Commencement 
of a New Period. 
Although 1895 may be regarded as the commencement 
of the latest well-defined period in the organisation of 
wheat production, the actual transition period extended 
over the whole of the ‘‘nineties’’ into the early years 
of the present century. But co-existent with the large 
estates there were many comparatively small holdings 
springing up, and when the rise of the frozen meat trade 
promoted the method of mixed farming, these small 
estates were soon found to possess the greatest differential 
advantages in production. 
The middle ‘‘nineties’’ is not chosen arbitrarily for the 
introduction of the last well-defined period in the wheat 
industry in New Zealand. Several forces were operating 
to bring about the change at this time. Thus it was 
in the year 1895 that the long continued and heavy fall 
in the price of farm products reached its lowest point. 
From this year until the end of the century farm 
products rose in price, and the rise has continued almost 
without intermission until the present time. Secondly, 
the year 1895 marks the beginning of the decline in the 
acreage under wheat. In the case of both Canterbury 
and Otago the area devoted to the production of wheat 
has decreased considerably since the year 1895. Thirdly, 
it is about the middle ‘‘nineties’’ that the yield per acre, 
which, owing to the exhaustion of the soil had shown a 
falling tendency for some years, began to rise again, 
and it rose very sharply and persistently until recent 
*Relative to European conditions our holdings are large; 
for they range in size from 100 to 500 acres, and, where the 
country is mountainous, or of such a nature as to be useful for 
grazing purposes only, they are frequently much larger. 
