1909.] 



Agricultural Labour in England. 



59 



alone there are 40,000 acres more in wheat than in the previous season. 

 Merchants expect that wheat will be exported from New Zealand in 

 some quantity this year. For the last five or six years practically no 

 wheat has been exported, the high prices ruling for wool and mutton 

 causing farmers to devote their attention mainly to sheep. 



Russia. — H.M. Consul-General at Odessa (Mr. C. S. Smith) has 

 forwarded the following particulars of the prospects of the coming 

 harvest in Russia, taken from the Torgovo-Promyshlennaya Gazeta of 

 February 17th (March 2nd) : — 



The information collected by the Central Statistical Committee for 

 January ioth/23rd last is to the effect that the condition of the 

 young shoots of the winter grain may be considered as safe in fifteen 

 provinces where they entered the winter in a satisfactory condition, 

 and where an early and effective snow-cover protected them, viz., in 

 Archangel, Vologda, Kazan, Kursk, Moscow, Nijni-Novgorod, Oren- 

 burg, Penza, Podolia, Poltava, Simbirsk, Ufa, Irkutsk, Tobolsk, and 

 Tomsk. 



As to the probable safety of the winter crops in the other fifty-two 

 provinces and districts, no such definite estimates can be made, partly 

 because even in the autumn the shoots were already in a somewhat 

 unsatisfactory state, and also because the snow-cover formed too late 

 or was too shallow to protect the young grain. 



Roumania. — Mr. Oliver Wardrop, British Consul at Bucharest, 

 reported on March 9th that on account of the persistent frost and 

 snow of the last month the usual spring labour in the fields had not 

 been possible anywhere, and owing to the poor condition and scarcity 

 of cattle, farmers were afraid that they would not be able to get through 

 their field work in time. The latest official figures show that the area 

 sown in the autumn of 1908 was: — Wheat, 3,919,000 acres; rye, 

 303,000 acres; barley, 184,000 acres; rape, 324,000 acres. 



These figures, which are only provisional, show a considerable 

 diminution compared with the two preceding years. The state of the 

 autumn sowings was fairly good at the date of this report. 



United States. — The Department of Agriculture has estimated 

 the potato crop in 1908 at 279,000,000 bushels, about 10 per cent, less 

 than in 1907. According to a statement in the Crop Reporter for 

 February last, the stock in growers' and dealers' hands was propor- 

 tionally about 12 per cent, less on January 1st, 1909, than on the 

 same date in 1908. 



The official Report issued on April 7th gives the condition of winter 

 wheat on April 1st last as 82*2, compared with 9i"3 on the same date 

 in 1908 and 89*9 in 1907. 



The Board of Agriculture and Fisheries have been furnished by the 

 Board of Trade with the following report, based on about 210 returns 

 from correspondents in various districts, ; on 

 Agricultural Labour the demand for agricultural labour in March, 

 in England Although work was found for the regular 



during March. farm servants, the unfavourable weather which 

 lasted for the greater part of March caused 

 day labourers to lose time in most parts of England, and the demand 



