1 Frs., 1898.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL, 87 
The Wheat Crop of 1897. 
NOTES ON THE SITUATION. 
Tire question which is now of paramount importance to wheatgrowers is: 
What are the prospects as to prices? ‘To answer the question in some degree 
it is necessary to look beyond Australasia, and, shortly summarising the state of 
the wheat crops and markets of the world, it may be gathered that unless some 
unforeseen contingency—a new source of supply—should spring from some 
unknown quarter, the price of wheat will harden. We now know pretty well 
the best and the worst of the Australasian wheat crop for 1897. Queensland 
has produced a record crop estimated at 800,000 bushels, but she will require 
some 2,000,000 bushels additional to supply the present year’s requirements. 
Whence is it to come? Not from Victoria, which has had what may be called 
a disastrous season owing to the continued dry weather. South Australia has 
come out equally badly for the same reason. New South Wales is better off, 
and will be able to export, according to the forecast of the Government 
Statistician, 345,000 bushels. New Zealand has had a short crop owing to 
drought. Thus it is useless to look for any large imports to Queensland from 
the neighbouring colonies, for taking them as a whole the crop has fallen short 
of requirements by some 3,000,000 bushels. Now let us look ahead. What 
do we find? 
From the most reliable journals dealing with the grain trade of the world, 
we learn that the available supply for 1898 is 85,000,000 quarters below that of 
1891, a so-called famine year. Meanwhile the consumption has increased by 
15,000,000 quarters. The Australasian says:—The total is 29,000,000 quarters 
less than that of 1896 (a year of great deficiency and reserve depletion), 
477,000,000 less than that of 1895, 62,000,000 below that of 1891, and 51,000,000 
below that of 1893. So far prices in the home market have not declined. On 
the contrary, the prices of Russian and Californian wheat have advanced. The 
amount of wheat visible in the United States and Canada is réported at 
50,000,000 bushels, or 34,000,000 less than the stocks held in 1896. The 
Bureau of Agriculture at Washington gives the total crop for the United 
States at 530,000,000 bushels. 
Then we come to the Argentine. Here the locusts have been devastating 
the crops. g - 
In Roumania the shipments this year will fall short by almost the amount 
of last year’s exports, and it appears as if the importing countries will be 
almost entirely dependent upon two exporting countries—North America and 
Russia—for their supplies from abroad. 
The wheat harvests of the leading countries, as given by the Mark Lane 
Hapress, are DOW fairly well ascertained, and thus compare— 
a 1896. 1897. 
{ Qr. Qr. 
The United Kingdom... .. 7,800,000 a 6,760,000 
France ovr) ae ..» 41,000,000 dnp 80,000,000 
Germany ... =. ee ... 18,780,000 aes 14,468,400 
Austria-Hungary ... Be ... 28,920,000 eS 21,528,000 © 
Russia S00 a ... 49,740,000 r% 39,792,000 
Italy 16,800,000. doy) 13,440,000 
Mhe United States of America ... 58,380,000. ... 64,750,000 
Thus the total for 1897 is 190,738,400 quarters, a deficiency of 20,181,600 
quarters, or 161,452,800 bushels, 
