9O CEREALS 



and handling in elevators. One of the objections most 

 promptly brought against this suggestion is that uniform 

 germination is so important that every maltster's lot must 

 be homogeneous, not only in condition, but in respect of 

 percentage of nitrogen content, and therefore in respect of 

 source. I cannot say whether, in fact, such Indian barleys 

 as are at all likely to become mixed in transit from their 

 respective sources to the coast show a really pernicious 

 divergency in nitrogen content, and whether seeing that 

 barley is likely to be more cultivated in the future un- 

 mixed with wheat it would not be possible to introduce 

 greater uniformity in kind. Stagnation is very often the 

 result of stickling for such a counsel of perfection as is 

 involved in the keeping separate of all the barleys from 

 different tracts, and it must be admitted that there is 

 something attractive in the idea that barley might be 

 made to profit by, and also to contribute to that adoption 

 of grain elevators which many persons in India foresee. 



Barley has not as yet been made the subject of a crop 

 forecast, though a proposal to this end has been for 

 some time before the Government of India, and has been 

 approved by the Indian Chambers of Commerce. The 

 percentage of admixture of barley as grown along with 

 wheat varies so widely that any estimate of the out-turn 

 and of the equivalent in acreage must, in the absence of 

 a forecast, be very conjectural. At present the crop is 

 believed to cover about 8,882,000 acres, or 13,880 square 

 miles, to amount to about 3,889,000 tons, and to have a 

 value of more than 15,000,000. 



I will not attempt an analysis of such export trade in 

 maize as exists. The grain was not distinguished in the 

 Indian trade statistics before April, 1912, and in the 

 agricultural statistics it is not distinguished now, so 

 there is no record on which to found conclusions or even 

 inferences. Some 21,000 tons of maize were sent abroad 

 in the calendar year 1912, but in the official year 1913-14 

 the shipments amounted to only about 2,900 tons. 



The only head under secondary food-grains that shows 

 an increase of exportation in 1913, as compared with 

 1912, is that of " Jowar and Bajra," which are millets. 

 The exports of these in 1913-14 had a total of 84,000 tons; 



