THE SOUTHERN PLANTED. 



at: 



questionable fact for which he has been contend- 

 ing, and the thoroughly practical effect of Glau- 

 ber's salts and lime versus smut. I might, in re- 

 ference even to the latter case, provoke some edi- 

 tors of agricultural journals and some farmers of 

 notoriety, to produce an account of facts (1) as 

 beggarly, and an amount of conclusions as bar- 

 ren, as have been produced in reference to the 

 former. 



Very respectfully, 



Thos. R. Hollyday. 



WHEAT TRADE- 



To the Editor of the Mark Lane Express : 



Beat. Sir — My last communication on the above 

 important subject was dated the 20th September, 

 1854, at which period the uncertainty hanging over 

 our prospects of a supply of wheat for the current 

 year, was alleviated only by the conviction that 

 our own crop, being uriprecedentedly productive, 

 would be sufficient for the year's consumption, 

 whilst it would leave us nothing in reserve, except 

 ffq the extent of what we should be able to import. 

 It is probable that England has never been placed 

 in so anomalous and critical a condition since the 

 year 1800, in regard to the supply of bread-corn ; 

 for by the deficiency in the crop of 1853, and her 

 utter inability to import a sufficient quantity 

 from abroad to cover that deficiency, she was 

 compelled to fall back upon, and consume to the 

 extent of five millions quarters of the reserve 

 stock; which is usually held over the harvest, 

 to meet the contingency of a wet or damp season, 

 which renders a mixture of old com absolutely 

 necessary in the manufacture of flour. Had the 

 succeeding crop (1854) been also deficient, or even 

 an ordinary average one, it is impossible to 

 say what might have been the consequences, or to 

 what height the price of wheat might have been 

 run up. For not only should we have immediately 

 felt the exhaustion of the usual reserves ; but, 

 as it turned out, we should have had no means 

 whatever of relief This will be sufficiently clear 

 if we consider that our foreign resources have 

 this season failed us to such an extent, that with 

 an ordinary crop it would have been impossible to 

 meet the consumption. 



For instance, in the United States, from whence 

 our importations amount' upon the average to 

 about 800,000 quarters, the price of Wheat and 

 flour is at this time higher than in London; and 

 agents from thence are actually purchasing Span- 

 ish flour (to be shipped in Spain) on Mark Lane, 

 for the New York market. From the Black Sea. 

 too, our supplies are wholly cut off for at least the 

 oext three or four months, whether we have peace 

 or a continuance of the war. from France and 

 the European ports of the Mediterranean, with 

 the exception of Spain, we have had little or 

 oo supply since harvest ; and until the next crop, 

 they will have enough to do to hold their own. 

 The bulk of our import- of wheat, therefore, have 

 come from Egypt, Spain and the Baltic ports: 

 and to what have they amounted 1 Only 880,000 

 quarters in the six months from the 5th of Sep- 

 tember, 1854, to the 5th of March, 1855, against 

 3,100,000 quarters in the corresponding period 

 of the previous season. This will tell, in some 

 measure, what would have been the probable 

 consequences to this kingdom of a deficient 

 harvest; and we cftnnot be too thankful that such 

 wae not (Ik* cit'se. 



Be it observed, too, that this falling off in 

 the foreign supply has not risen from lowness of 

 price with us, or wholly on the contingency of war. 

 In 1858-4, for instance, our high prices stimulated 

 the export of wheat and flour from the United. 

 States to such a degree, that every barrel of the 

 one, and bushel of the other, that could be convey- 

 ed to the seaboard, was shipped off to Europe. 1 

 suspected at the time that they were overdoing it, 

 and would leave themselves too bare of stock ; and 

 such proved to be the case. A deficient harvest- 

 last year, found them totally unprepared, and the 

 consequence is that flour is at this present time 10s. 

 per barrel higher at New York than it is here; so tl|a1> 

 we can look for no further supplies from thence this 

 season; and what is more, our Canadian supply is 

 diverted to the United States as the best market. 

 So that the whole of North America is, in respect to a, 

 supply of wheat or flour, as effectually shut against 

 us as if we were at war with that continent. 



And with respect to the Baltic ports, the same 

 may, to a certain extent, be said of them ; that the 

 prices of last year in England and France stimula- 

 ted export beyond its natural limits, to the ex- 

 haustion of the stocks. This we learn by evidence 

 from Rostock and other nothern ports ; and if we 

 are just now obtaining a tolerable supply from 

 thence, it is the accumulated stock brought down 

 by land during the winter months, whilst the navi- 

 gation was stopped. And the same communication 

 informs us that they cannot send us much more 

 after the present shipments are despatched, until 

 another harvest, especially if the Russian prohibi - 

 tory ukase is strictly enforced in every part of thai, 

 empire ; otherwise we might expect a supply to 

 reach Dantzic, Stettin, and Rostock from Russian 

 Poland, by the V istula, and other rivers and their 

 tributaries. 



With regard to Spain, we are obtaining a small 

 supply of wheat and flour from thence ; but if we 

 are to have the United States for a, competitor, the 

 quantity in future will be still more limited ; whilst, 

 however, our prices are so high, and only then, 

 they will send us all they can spare, and probably 

 something beyond it, unless a better market can be 

 found for it. The difficulty in Spain — owing to the 

 wretched state of the roads and the absence of ca- 

 nals and railways — in" getting the produce to the 

 seaboard, prevents them, iu ordinary years, frorr? 

 | exporting corn; so much, in fact, is the price 

 ' grain enhanced by the enormous expense of the 

 transit by land, that, as 1" have before stated, the 

 inhabitants of the coast find it more to their inter • 

 est to import wheat and flour from the United 

 States than to fetch it from Old Castile, where the 

 first cost is frequently not more than Is. Gd. per 

 bushel. But when a high price can be obtained 

 on importation, and then cult/, Spain can export *a 

 large quantity of wheat. We can, however, in the 

 present instance, make no estimate whatever of the 

 quantity to be obtained this season. 



We must now turn to Egypt and her dependen - 

 cies, from whence we may expect a considerable 

 supply of wheat in a fe w weeks. In the Delta of 

 the Nile they reap two harvest:-, in the year; the 

 first in March, and the second in September or Oc- 

 tober. The former is already over ; and as the 

 I prices of Western Europe tempted the Egyptian 

 farmers to sow more than usual, they will have a 

 I large quantify to export.. On the other hand, the 

 I supplies from th# Black Sea being cut off by the 

 ! war. f he Mediterranean islands, which depend upon 



