18 AGRICULTURE A2nD TARIFF REFORM. 



in tlie price of the Britisli wheat during the 

 same period, as the following figures show: — 



At least 70 per cent, of the total supply of 

 wheat in this country comes from abroad, and 

 it is a significant fact that one of the character- 

 istic features of Our wheat supply has been the 

 progressive displacement of the home-grown 

 article by the imported article, a process which 

 the Royal Commission declared was concurrent 

 with the fall in the price of wheat in our 

 markets and with a persistent shrinkage of the 

 area under that crop in the United Kingdom. 

 Moreover, it is worth noting that whilst in 

 England, according to all the best authorities, 

 it costs from £7 to £8 to produce an acre of 

 wheat, the cost in America, according to a report 

 issued by our Foreign Office a few years ago, 

 shows that it varies there from, at the lowest, 

 £1 per quarter, up to, at the highest, £4 4s. 

 It may be asked: — "How can a British farmer, 

 saddled not merely with the cost of growing hia 

 wheat, but with ever- increasing local and Imperial 

 charges (to which, by the by, the foreigner 

 using our markets is not subject), be said to 



