230 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. {1 Man., 1898. 
of 1896; Argentina was troubled with frosts, floods, and locusts, which have 
reduced a highly promising crop to one of less than average dimensions; and 
the Australian crop has been once more badly injured by drought. The United 
States and Canada are the only exporting countries which have produced full 
crops at present. India, although suffering from famine during a great portion 
of the year, proved, with the help of Burma, self-supporting in respect of food, 
and the summer and autumn food-grain crops turned out well, while wheat was 
sown. and started under the most promising conditions. he wheat supply of the 
world, during the latter part of the cereal year, will be greatly affected by the 
production of wheat in India, to be harvested from February to April. But, 
even if India produces a full crop, the wheat supply of the world for 1897-8 
will be about 16,000,000 quarters less than the deficient total of 1896-7, and 
fully 26,000,000 quarters less than the normal consumption of the cereal year. 
As the rye, maize, other grain crops, potatoes, hops, and fruit crops have also 
turned out more or less deficient generally, it is clear that 1897 must take 
rank, for the world as a whole, as one of the lean years of the century.— 
Standard (London). 
THE PRICE OF WHEAT. 
Wirn respect to the prices of agricultural products, the year opened with falling 
wheat markets, which caused much disappointment and surprise in the face ot 
an acknowledged shortness in the production of the preceding harvest of the 
world in relation to the consumptive demand. There had been a considerable 
advance in the price of wheat in the late portion of the autumn of 1896, in 
consequence of the famine in India, the destruction of a great porticn of the 
Argentine crop by locusts, and the lack of a surplus in Australasia. Buta 
reaction set in with the winter lasting till the middle of May, when the 
scarcity of wheat was so keenly felt that a recovery was inevitable. The 
average price in the first week of January was 380s. 6d. a quarter, and by the — 
middle of May it was only 27s. 11d., after sinking to 26s. 6d. in the third week — 
of April. The advance was a small one when it first occurred, and there was a 
collapse during June, which ended with the average at 27s. a quarter; but 
after July began there was an advance, in spite of fluctuations, until the 
middle of November, when the ayerage stood at 34s. Then came a slight 
reverse, which, however, has now been recovered, the average for the last 
week of December having been 34s. 4d. The range of weekly averages for 
wheat up to the fourth week of December was from 26s. 6d. to 348. 4d. The 
average for the year comes out at 30s. 1d. per quarter, as compared with 
26s. 2d. for 1896, 23s. Id. for 1895, and 22s. 10d. for 1894.—Standard 
(London). 
WHEATGROWING IN VICTORIA. 
A Vicrorran farmer, writing to the Melbourne Argus, says:—New wheat started 
in our local markets at 4s. 6d. per bushel, a price, or a little less, we would 
have been willing to sell at. ‘The first few loads brought 4s. 6d., but as soon as 
the wheat began to arrive in any quantity the price was brought down to3s. 8d. 
Then the question with the farmer was: Where will it stop, or how to stay the 
market? The only thing we could do was to hold last year. We lost nothing by 
holding for a time; in fact, those of us who can must hold to stay the market. 
We have too many speculators on the scene. If we do not hold we sell at 
their own price. Hold for a month or two, rig the market to force prices up, 
sell, and make the profit the farmer should get. When I tell you, sir, that 
there is no profit whatever to the majority of the farmers for the past three 
seasons, but most of them have suffered heavy losses, I am sure you know 1 
speak correctly. To be honest, farmers must try and get: a somewhat fair price 
for their wheat, otherwise they cannot pay their just debts. In many cases it 
is not actually the farmer's wheat; he simply is the person in charge, to do 
the best he can to pay his creditors. The question I would put is, “Should 
there not be a unity between the millers and farmers?” taking the seasons 
