CEREALS 05 



number of waterways that thrid the land, the rice trade 

 as it now exists could not have come into existence. It 

 is the growth of about fifty years; and the system of 

 local markets has not advanced as in the Punjab wheat 

 tracts. Many months before harvest the country is alive 

 with so-called brokers, who receive money from the 

 millers and make advances against the next crop. When 

 the harvest is at hand they distribute bags on a variety 

 of terms, and then they buy all they can at prices that 

 leave them a profit on the rates given them by the millers. 

 But most of the transactions are carried out on the 

 cultivators' own premises,' whereas in the Punjab the 

 cultivator with wheat to sell usually brings it to a common 

 market, where it is exposed for sale or made over to the 

 agent to whom it has been hypothecated. 



In these local markets the wheat is either displayed in 

 bulk on matting spread in the open, or is represented 

 by samples. In the central part of the Punjab the wheat 

 is carted to the market in bulk. In other places much 

 of it is brought from field to market in bags, is unbagged 

 for inspection at the market, and is then by the owner 

 rebagged for storage or for despatch by rail. In the 

 north-west tract there are no carts, and the grain conies 

 in on pack animals bullocks, asses, and camels. 



Looking back over the last ten years, we see that there 

 have been some big events in the Indian wheat trade. 

 The most important have certainly been the growth in 

 irrigation, the creation of vast wheat colonies where 

 there was desert before, and the inception of still further 

 irrigation measures. Then there were the enormous 

 shipments in 1904, when India exported 2,150,000 tons, 

 and the United Kingdom took more wheat from India 

 than from any other single source; and the striking con- 

 trast of the exports in 1908-09, which amounted to about 

 5 per cent, of that figure. More potent as factors in the 

 future have been the alteration in 1907 of the terms of 

 the Indian contract reducing percentage of admixture, 

 and the increasing tendency to ship cleaner wheat, until 

 it becomes evident that India could work on a perfectly 

 clean basis. Associated with these is the appearance of 

 a large export trade in barley cleaned out of the wheat. 



