Wheat Export of New South Wales. 



251 



of 20,000 each, were forwarded to Liverpool from New York. 

 These shipments were made in refrigerated compartments 

 containing four or five carloads each, the latter quantity 

 being required to fill a compartment. The departure of 

 the fruit from California was timed to correspond with the 

 sailing date of the ship for which it w T as destined, and the 

 total time from shipping point to Liverpool and London was 

 seventeen to eighteen days. With a good deal of fluctuation, 

 these shipments of American summer fruits have been con- 

 tinued from year to year, and they show a gradual growth. 

 Longer experience in handling has made it possible to deliver 

 Californian peaches, pears, and plums in London in sound 

 condition, almost without failure. The uncertain element 

 from the commercial standpoint now is the condition of the 

 English markets on arrival. If the markets are bare of 

 English and French fruits, prices sufficiently high to leave a 

 profit are obtained, otherwise not. With lower ocean 

 transport and refrigeration rates a considerable increase 

 could, it is held, be made with profit, as the fruit can now be 

 placed on the London market within fifteen to seventeen days 

 from the time of picking in California. 



[ Year Book of the United States Department of Agriculture, 1900.] 



Of recent agricultural developments in New South Wales the 

 most noticeable is said to be the increased 

 Wheat Produc- quantity of wheat produced, and the 

 Export of New necessity of finding facilities for exporting 

 South Wales, the surplus. It is estimated that in 1899- 

 1900 some 3,000,000 bushels were avail- 

 able beyond the requirements of the colony, and harvest 

 prospects promised for the season of 1900-1901 a surplus of 

 from 5,000,000 to 7,000,000 bushels beyond the quantity 

 required for local consumption. To handle this surplus pro- 

 duction in a systematic and economic manner is regarded as 

 a problem needing immediate solution, for although the colony 

 possesses an admirable railway system and water frontages 

 scarcely equalled in the world, the two have never been 

 brought into connection, so that the larger portion of the 



