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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



decreased nearly one fifth, yet the price of wheat fell in more than 

 the same proportion. The supplies obtained from European coun- 

 tries fell off in quantity, and would, indeed, have fallen to nothing 

 had it not been for Russia. With her black-earth region, rapidly 

 settled by her own population, she was in nearly the same position as 

 the United States, and responded for a time freely to the demands 

 of the English market. 



The economic movement thus fixed upon English wheat inter- 

 ests by adverse conditions proceeded rapidly in the ten years follow- 

 ing 1880, and the great changes occurrerd not in England itself, but 

 in the development of competition among outside growers of wheat 

 for export. In 1880 and 1881 it seemed as if the United States held 

 a practical monopoly of the British wheat market. In these years 

 nearly two thirds of the total imports came from the United States, 

 and British India was the only competitor in sight, but far behind 

 America in importance. The quantities of wheat taken from our 

 producers have never since been equaled, and still stand as the rec- 

 ord years in this one line of exports. For the rest of the decade the 

 movement fluctuated within wide limits, and it seemed at times as if 

 the position of American wheat in England was seriously threatened. 

 Russia showed a remarkable increase in an ability to export, while 

 British India, its own population not being consumers of wheat, 

 was thought to offer an almost unlimited field for wheat culture and 

 commerce, limited, in fact, only by the difficulties of assuring certain 

 water supply and ready means of transport. A new and not unfa- 

 vored competitor gave signs of activity in Australasia, while before 

 the year 1890 experts were speculating upon the possibilities of 

 Argentina as a wheat country. Europe, outside of Russia, was prac- 

 tically out of the race; but that loss was more than made good by so 

 many new countries coming forward with a promise of abundant 

 and cheap production. The former table on acreage and price in 

 England is here continued for the decade 1881 and 1890: 



