21.8 
Variation in the Price and Supply of Wlieat. 
and France lias almost ceased. The German agriculturists are therefore 
sufferers in a double respect. The rust and rain have decreased the quantity, 
iujvu-cd the quality, and at the same time prices have fallen considerably when 
compared with those of last year, and stand in no jiroportion to the high rents 
23aid in the preceding years. It is therefore high time tliat the incomes of the 
agriculturists should increase if bankruptcies are not to take place amongst 
them. 
WIBOrtG. Report fok 1861. — Last year's crop of rye and oats have been 
rather small, yet some oats have been exported to England. It ought to be 
remarked that Finland annually imports large quantities of rye and rye-flour 
from Russia, and that the quantities of corn exported from Finland, if any, are 
small. The prices of oats varied from 25s. G(7. to 28s. M. per imperial quarter. 
Very little wheat is grown. 
1862. — Crops of grain in Finland suffered severely, and in many cases in. 
the Midland and Northern Provinces were totally destroyed by early frosts. 
Many people died of a singular form of sickness, occasioned by living on the 
wet corn. The Senate advanced money for the purchase of corn to feed 
the people. The distress was even more general than in 1856. 
For a series of years there has not only been a partial, but frequently a 
total failure of the crops in the northern provinces ; and notwithstandinp the 
large sums which are annually spent by Government in endeavouring to dry 
the extensive morasses in those districts, it is to be feared that Finland will 
not be able to produce a sufficiency of grain for its own requirements. 
NOKWAY. 
CHRISTIANIA. Report fok 1861, by Mr. Consul-General Crowe. — 
The exportation of oats increases ; all other cereals are imported for home 
consumption. Among these, rye and rye-meal figure more largely than wheat 
and wheaten flour. 
Although Norway has many climatic and physical difficulties to contend 
with, she still is essentially an agricultural and pastoral country. Farmers 
here, however, as in most other countries, are a dogged set, wedded to the 
system handed down from father to son. Their im[ilements, until within 
the last three or four years, were, as they still in fact are in the most 
sequestered spots, of the most primitive description, and in those localities 
agriculture appears in its infancy ; but in the neighbourhood of the ca]ntal and 
its surrounding districts, great and important improvements have within these 
few years been generally introduced. An extensive system of subdraining, 
which had been universally neglected before, under the impression that frost 
admitted only of surface-draining, has now been successfully apjilied ; imple- 
ments of the most modern and improved description have been substituted for 
the rude and primitive descrijitions previously in use. The consequence has 
been that increased and remunerative results have followed, and sanguine hopes 
are entertained that at no distant period Norway will, as Sweden now does, 
be able to grow cereals of one description or other sufEcient for her own 
consumption. 
Oats and barley appear pre-eminently suited to the soil and climate, and 
quantities of the former have of late years been exported and obtained re- 
munerative prices. 
An interesting proof of the climatic immrmities enjoyed by Norway may be 
inferred from the fact that the barley grown last year at Alten, in latitude 70°, 
was considered of such superior quality tliat parties sent from the Gulf of 
Bothnia, a distance of about 300 miles overland, in order to purchase seed, 
paid on the spot at Alten 45s. sterling per imperial quarter. 
According to the last official return, it is estimated that there are about 
