578 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



A COMPARISON. 



A competent writer bere niiikes this coiiijKirison (Delhi i.s 800 miles 

 from Calcutta and 940 miles IVotii Bombay): 



«. d. 



Cost of wheat per quarter at Delhi 20 



Railway freight (i (i 



Shippiug (I 8 



Total cost in London for 492 pon lula i;;} 2 



Cost of wheat in Chicago per quarter :!.' 11 



Railway freight, Chicago to New York li 2 



Ocean freight, New York to Loudon 2 4 



41 5 



If this is a true estimate of the American cost and charges it shows 

 much in favor of India. Mr. J. E. O'Conor, assistant secretary to the 

 Government of India, financial department, in reviewing- the export 

 trade, says : 



" It has been more than once pointed out in these reviews that the 

 trade in Indian wheat must be one of a very uncertain and tiuctuating 

 character. Its continuance, on a very larye scale, depends on the con- 

 currence of a number of circumstances : (1) Abundant crops in India ; 

 (2) crops below the average iu the United States and in Europe; (3) low 

 rates of freight; (4) low rates of exchange. When all these exist to- 

 gether the supply of Indian wheat which will be put on the consuming 

 markets will astonish, as it has astonished, those who are but imperfectly 

 acquainted with the capacity of India for the production of this grain. 

 When one or the other of them fails, the margin of j^rofit, whieli is so 

 slender at the best that exporters must work on a very extensive scale to 

 obtain appreciable returns, shrinks in such a degree that the export will 

 be carried on either to fulfill engagements already entered into or, as an 

 unavoidable alternative to paying for imjjorts in money. This year the 

 second of the factors which must be present to make the wheat trade 

 profitable has been absent. The harvests have been abundant in tlie 

 United States and Europe, stocks in hand are large, and the supplies iu 

 existence or in prospect are so considerable that the iiriceof wheat in 

 England has fallen to as low a pointas has been known lor a hundred years. 

 Trices have not similarly fallen iu India, though it has been stated in a 

 very positive way that India can jtroduce wheat at a much lower cost 

 than the United States — an assertion to which I venture, for reasons 

 given, to demur altogether — the luct remains that India iu her present 

 circumstances cannot afford to sell her wheat with profit for the price 

 ottering iu London of 37 shillings a quarter and even less. The average 

 price of wheat in London has been, in LSSO, 44,s. 4(1. ; 1881, 45s. 4rf. ; 1882, 

 45s. 1(1. ; 1883, 44,s. lid., and 1884, 37s. Sd. In the first week of 1884 the 

 average was 39.s\ a quarter, and by the end of February it had gone 

 steadily down to 3Cs. ll^Z. Then there was a rise to 38.v. Id', by the end 

 of March, and the average for the three months was Sis. Od. In Ajjril 

 it was 37s. 2d., and in May 38s. 2d. The ])iice fell to 37s. in June, and 

 then for the three months was only 37s. ikl. aqnarter. Since then prices 

 have actually fallen as low as 34s. a quarter. Now, to leave a profit at 

 all, Indian wheat must sell for 39s. or 40s. a quarter, when prices in inilia 

 and freights are both low." 



An Indian daily paper, commenting on the above, says: 



"The Indian wheat-grower may derive some consolation from the 

 knowledge that if the American farmer has this year prevented the ex- 



