grain growing Colonies. The cheapen ing of the cost of harvesting is not the greatest of the advantages which the reaper and binder confers. Time is pre eminently money in harvest time, when a single day's delay in a variable climate may spoil a crop. To shorten the harvest by a fortnight is no small thing, and to be able to attack the crop just when it is fit, and no sooner, these among other things are the gains. It is fair to admit that on the other side there have been losses arising from the fact that when the straw is cut into chaff, the binding wire is sometimes imperfectly removed, and gets cut up in small pieces and mixed with the chaff, and this has resulted in the death of a great many horses in Canterbury last year. A little care and attention should avoid this danger however. < We may be quite sure that the new facilities afforded to farming by the railways and the im proved machinery to which we have referred will stimulate greatly the pro duction of cereals in the next few years. It is too early yet to speak of prices. Oats will as usual be ruled a good deal by the Australian markets. Wheat must bo lower than it stood last year at the opening, as the margin on shipping would hardly justify a price over three shillings and ninepence at shipping port, but an improvement in the English market may take place in another month or two, and help our market. Already the competition arising from the removal of the grain duties is making itself felt in the Northern markets, and Colonial flour rules very low.
