86 CEREALS 



The wheat area of India is about 42,822 square miles, 

 and its out-turn about 8,400,000 tons. The area seems 

 small beside the rice area of 123,000 square miles, and 

 yet it represents something like a quarter of all Spain. 

 The irrigated area under wheat averages about 8,547,300 

 acres, or 13,355 square miles, and to this is to be added 

 the 2,900,000 acres, or 4,511 square miles, expected to 

 be put under wheat in those irrigation tracts that are 

 about to be created. This will make in all some 17,800 

 square miles of irrigated wheat. 



In certain recent years India has exported large 

 quantities of barley. The average quantity exported in 

 the five years ending 1910-11 was about 29,500 tons. In 

 the year 1911-12 it went to< 292,500 tons, while the figures 

 for 1912-13 touched 615,200 tons. That for 1913-14 has 

 gone back to 190,400 tons; but I find it to be agreed 

 that the demand for Indian barley will persist. There is 

 a difference of opinion as to whether most of the Indian 

 barley is used for malting or for feeding. I understand 

 it to be a fact that East Indian barley is bought under 

 the Feeding Stuffs Contract of the London Corn Trade 

 Association. 



The main interest of the barley figures is less obvious 

 than their magnitude. In the first place, the comparison 

 of the earlier with the later years is probably illusory to 

 some extent. In the second place, the development 

 illustrates one step in the evolution of a trade specialized 

 on modern lines, and it shows how improved organization 

 in one branch of trade may entail changes in another. 



The figures I have quoted understate India's real 

 exports of barley, and such understatement is more 

 marked as regards the years anterior to 1911-12. For- 

 merly the barley was exported in the wheat and swelled 

 the figures relating to that higher-priced grain. Up to 

 1907 the proportion of barley permitted under the Indian 

 wheat contract was 5 per cent., and in many shipments 

 this was considerably exceeded. Even if it had been 

 strictly adhered to a very large quantity of barley must 

 have gone forward. For 5 per cent, on 1,000,000 tons 

 of wheat is 50,000 tons of barley; and India's average 

 exportation of wheat used to be not far short of that. 



