11 



1849 to 504,000,000 bushels, and the per capita supply from four and a 

 third to nine and a half bushels. One-third of the production has for 

 six years been exported. 



This was very well in years of failure and threatened famine in West- 

 ern Europe. But in 1882 the usual average of 1,143,826,044 bushels 

 was increased to 1,270,000,000. The surplus of this country was esti- 

 mated at 48, 000, 000 bushels. India produced an excessive crop. Aus- 

 tralasia had an enlarged product, and Egypt, Algiers, the Argentine 

 Republic, and Chili helped to swell the supply of the world. During 

 the entire year past the visible stocks have every where been increasing. 



What are we doing? Simply co-operating with Great Britain in her 

 extraordinary endeavors to reduce the price of wheat, to sustain free 

 trade by giving cheap bread for the sustenance of low-priced labor. To 

 this end she is building railroads in India and promoting railroad ex- 

 tension through the Dominion of Canada to the Pacific, and seeking to 

 control the destinies of Egypt and other nationalities. 



The effect of this overproduction is seen in a disastrous fall in the 

 price of wheat below a remunerative basis. 



The average product of wheat in British India, as given by Sir Evelyn 

 Baring, the finance minister, was 700 pounds, or 11$ bushels per acre; 

 and the acreage 21,000,000, making a product of 245,000,000 bushels. 

 A recent official estimate makes the product of 1883 (harvested in March) 

 190,000,000 bushels for British India and 50,000,000 bushels for the 

 product of native territory. 



The unoccupied cultivable land in the principal provinces is officially 

 estimated at 182, 069 square miles, of which 83,600 square miles are in 

 provinces where 25 per cent, of cultivated area is in wheat. It is there- 

 fore possible that the area might be increased 12,000,000 to 15,000,000 

 acres, and with increase in native districts it is not impossible to double 

 the present area. 



Increase of railroad facilities would render available at once a larger 

 proportion of the present production and stimulate somewhat the ex- 

 tension of area. The mileage in March, 1883, was 10,251, and an in- 

 crease of 7 per cent, is calculated for the present year. 



The exports of India in the fiscal year ended March, 1873, amounted 

 to 3,277,781, and in 1882, 37,148,543 bushels. In seven months of the 

 past year the shipments had reached 31,027,074 bushels, fully 50 per 

 cent, more than had ever been shipped in the same period of any pre- 

 vious year. The exports of five years, from 1879 to 1883, averaged 

 16,786,265 bushels. So the increase of ten years has been in rapidly 

 accelerating ratio. 



In Australia the present wheat crop is more than double that of 1883. 

 The increase in South Australia, according to recent estimates, is from 

 7,356,117 bushels to 20,900,000, and in Victoria from 8,751,454 to 17,- 

 400,000 bushels. The value of wheat in Australia is from 3s. to 3s. 6d. 

 per bushel, or 80 cents per bushel. In New Zealand the farmers are dis- 

 carding primitive and exhaustive wheat growing, importing fertilizers 

 and agricultural machinery. The average yield in 1882 was nearly 

 twenty-three bushels per acre. 



The progress of agriculture in the Argentine Republic is at present 

 very rapid. Much of the soil is a deep, black mold, very productive. 

 There is a strong movement from pastoral to general agriculture, to- 

 ward inclosure of pastoral areas and the practice of mixed husbandry. 

 The average export value of Russian wheat from 1873 to 1880 was $1.01 

 per bushel. The quantity exported was 475, 000, 000 bushels, or an aver- 



