192 



FOREIGN OFFICE REPORTS. 



[Sept. 1896. 



Company, it is rumoured, will shortly complete arrangements 

 with a Dutch line of steamers to commence running from Port 

 Arthur, Texas, their southern terminus, to Great Britain; the 

 service to commence in the autumn of * 1896. 



It is thought that not only the exports of Kansas City and 

 Omaha, but also those of towns as far north as Minneapolis and St. 

 Paul, Minnesota, can be handled cheaper via the Gulf of Mexico 

 than by the ports of the Atlantic coast. The four great grain- 

 producing States tributary to Kansas City, in an average year 

 produce 25 per cent, of the wheat, 40 per cent, of the corn, and 

 over 30 per cent, of the oats grown in the United States ; the 

 States and territories tributary to Kansas City produce 40 per 

 cent, of the cattle, 60 per cent, of the sheep of the United States, 

 and more of the packing-house and livestock products of Kansas 

 City are exported than of any other city in the United States 

 except Chicago ; so that the importance of the ports on the Gulf 

 of Mexico to Kansas City and territory tributary can readily be 

 seen. The six railways of Kansas City are now accepting and 

 transporting extensive quantities of grain and grain products, 

 and packing-house products from Kansas City to these ports 

 for shipment to European and^ other markets, which formerly 

 went by the Atlantic coast ports. 



The growing export trade from the Gulf of Mexico is said to 

 be a subject that is at this time causing considerable uneasiness 

 to the grain merchants of St. Louis, Chicago, and the eastern 

 markets. The low freight rates to Gulf ports by western 

 and southern lines have diverted an immense amount of corn 

 for export from central primary markets and eastern ports. 

 As regards Chicago and eastern ports, however, there is, it 

 appears, no likelihood that any change at all probable in the 

 situation could restore to those markets their former interest 

 in that portion of the western crops exported. The Gulf export 

 business that was predicted for years has become a reality. It 

 is the natural result of a business trend that long ago was 

 inevitable to the people of the south and west, but it is even 

 now hardly appreciated by the lake region and east coast 

 markets. 



[Foreign Office Report, Annual Series, No. 1725. Trice 7 id.] 



Cultivation of Saffron in Spain. 



In his last annual report to the Foreign Office, Mr. Alexander 

 Finn, Her Majesty's Consul at Malaga, gives the following 

 particulars regarding the cultivation of saffron in Spain :— 



With the ground lightly prepared to a depth of 6 inches, the 

 seed is planted about 3 inches deep in rows at J or f inch 

 distance apart, leaving nearly 8 inches between each row. This 

 operation is effected about August. The first year there is no 



