The Hemisphere: Silver-Lined Clouds

It was wheat-harvesting time on the Canadian prairies last week, but in many a field the wheat was dull brown instead of the normal harvest yellow. Fostered by cloudy, wet weather, an epidemic of rust fungus had ravaged Canada’s wheat crop. Between the grain rust and bad weather, the 1954 harvest has shrunk to an estimated 370 million bushels—36% below 1953 and 44% below 1952.

Although the blighted harvest will hurt many farmers severely, it will also help to relieve a nagging national problem. Bumper crops in 1951-53 crammed Canadian grain elevators with unsold wheat. The poor 1954 crop will help reduce the huge surplus. And, since the same nasty weather that plagued Canada all summer also prevailed in Western Europe, prospects are that Canada will be able to boost its wheat exports to Europe this year.