the recent agricultural and scientific work concerning wheat 

 done in Rhodesia, British East Africa, tropical and sub-tropical 

 Australia, tropical India, and the Sudan. 



Temperate climes are the habitat of wheat, and pioneers in 

 new countries have hitherto sought to give it such environ- 

 ment, even in the tropics, but very large areas of good land 

 are available for the production of wheat, if varieties can be 

 found or produced, which will thrive on a small rainfall, or if 

 irrigation can be provided on a large scale. Everywhere rust 

 is the enemy, and the application of recent botanical dis- 

 coveries, more particularly the researches of Professor Biffen 

 and others as to the inheritance by plants of immunity or 

 susceptibility to disease, are likely to increase greatly the area 

 upon which wheat growing" can become a profitable commercial 

 proposition. 



The author also refers to the efforts made to improve the 

 milling and baking' qualities of wheat. He specially directs 

 attention to such results obtained in India, where Mr. and Mrs. 

 Howard, using as parents varieties indigenous to the country, 

 have by hybridizing produced new ones of greatly superior 

 quality, which are likely on European markets to realize 

 relatively higher prices, fully equal to those obtained for the 

 best Canadian and American kinds. 



The yield of grain per acre is small not only in the tropics, 

 but in most countries, and by the production of varieties, each 

 one in the highest degree suitable to some environment, the 

 yield of wheat per acre, and therefore the total crop of the 

 world, can be greatly increased. 



The CHAIRMAN : Gentlemen The next paper on the agenda 

 deals with a somewhat cognate subject, namely, that of. "The 

 Indian Grain Trade/' It is written by Mr. Frederick Noel- 

 Patom, the Director-General of Commercial Intelligence in 

 India, who is, unfortunately, unable to be here this afternoon 

 through illness. In his absence we are fortunate to find that 

 the paper will be read by Sir James Wilson, who is himself an 

 authority on the same subject. 



THE INDIAN GRAIN TRADE. 



By FREDERICK NOEL-PATON, 

 Director-General of Commercial Intelligence, India. 



[ABSTRACT.] 



Areas under food-grains in India. Magnitude. Constitution 

 of statistics. System of forecasts. Production value. The 

 mass of the food-grains retained' in the country. Conditions 

 12 



