310 THE BOOK OF WHEAT 



With the completion of the railway, foreign conception under- 

 went a great change, and Siberia suddenly became the "fu- 

 ture granary of the world." Subsequent developments have 

 not met expectations, for the true Siberia is a mean between 

 these conceptions. This enormous country, which is 24 times as 

 large as the German Empire, and nearly twice as large as the 

 United States proper, has a very rigorous climate, and perhaps 

 only half of it is habitable, while a still smaller portion is 

 suitable for agriculture. This still leaves an immense area, 

 however, upon which the cultivation of wheat is not only pos- 

 sible, but probable. Wheat is at present the most important 

 crop of Siberia. It is exceedingly difficult to foretell the role 

 which the Russian Empire is destined to play in the world's 

 future wheat production. The possibilities are tremendous. 

 Since, however, they are so largely dependent upon social, 

 economic and institutional evolution, it is very improbable that 

 Russia will duplicate the rapid development of wheat produc- 

 tion which took place in the United States. While the develop- 

 ment will be gradual, it is probable that Russian production will 

 be one of the great permanent factors in the wheat industry. 1 



India's Wheat Production. The two factors which enabled 

 India to become a large exporter of wheat were the completion 

 of the Suez Canal in 1869 and the subsequent development of 

 the railroads. The former gave an enormous stimulus to 

 wheat cultivation. Wheat thrives best on the dry plains of the 

 Punjab and on the plateaus of the central provinces. Agricul- 

 tural conditiors in different parts of India, and meteorological 

 conditions in different parts and in different seasons, are so 

 diverse that the annual production varies greatly and is ex- 

 tremely difficult to predict. India wheat as a factor in the 

 world market is made still more uncertain by the fact that 

 domestic consumption is unusually susceptible to variations 

 resulting from changes in the price that may be obtained in 

 the export markets. 



In recent years the annual wheat area in British India has 

 been approximately 28,000,000 acres. About one-fourth of this 

 is planted in the United Provinces, and about one-fourth in the 

 Punjab. Of the remaining wheat area, the Central Provinces 



1 Rubinow, Russia's Wheat Surplus, TJ. S, pept. Agr., Bu. of 

 Sta.. Bui. 42. 1906, 



