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able. And it must be remembered that in irrigation 

 colonies the sparseness of the population and the 

 tendency to produce only the great staple products cause 

 exportation of an exceptionally large proportion of the 

 out-turn. 



It seems evident that any such additional quantity 

 thrown on the market at harvest time must crush it as 

 well as the railway organization. In a year of good 

 crops much of it would be available for export. But in 

 a year of good crops prices are low, such portion of the 

 wheat as is sold for home consumption is sold cheap, 

 and if the cultivator finds himself still unable to hold his 

 surplus in safety, and obliged to let it go at such knock- 

 down prices as a gorged export trade can offer, he will 

 not put his land under wheat again. These considera- 

 tions are gradually making their little impression; and, 

 to cap them all, comes the accumulating evidence that 

 European ports are rapidly completing their equipment 

 for the handling of bulk wheat, and will, before long, 

 require India either to supply in bulk or to knock some- 

 thing off her prices. 



All these considerations have a special interest for 

 Bombay, which twenty years ago was the chief port for 

 Indian wheat. Karachi has in recent years spent large 

 sums on facilities for handling grain in bags, and some 

 of the local opponents of the elevator proposals argue 

 that this expenditure obliges Karachi to continue on the 

 old lines. Bombay, on the other hand, having ceded the 

 premier place in the wheat trade to Karachi, and finding 

 herself already obliged to contemplate further port equip- 

 ment for the handling of produce, is disposed to think 

 that she might get back a little of her own if she were 

 able to come forward with an offer of sound bulk wheat 

 brought in by the two great railways that serve her. 



While this question of elevators relates most evidently 

 to wheat, it remains to be seen whether it may not also 

 affect rice. This is my reason for disposing of it before 

 proceeding to discuss these two crops separately. I can 

 find no record of storage of rice in bins in any country. If 

 any of my hearers can refer me to such experience I shall 

 be grateful. Rice more particularly rice in the husk 



