142 THE POSSIBILITIES 



it is a fallacy. Crops of from sixteen to twenty- 

 three bushels per acre are considered, good crops 

 in Russia, while the average hardly reaches 

 thirteen bushels, even in the corn-exporting parts 

 of the empire. Besides, the amout of labour 

 which is necessary to grow wheat in Russia with 

 no thrashing-machines, with a plough dragged 

 by a horse hardly worth the name, with no roads 

 for transport, and so on, is certainly much greater 

 than the amount of labour which is necessary 

 to grow the same amount of wheat in Western 

 Europe. 



When brought to the London market, Russian 

 wheat was sold in 1887 at 31s. the quarter, while 

 it appeared from the same Mark Lane Express 

 figures that the quarter of wheat could not be 

 grown in this country at less than 36s. 8d., even 

 if the straw be sold, which is not always the 

 case. But the difference of the land rent in 

 both countries would alone account for the differ- 

 ence of prices. In the wheat belt of Russia, where 

 the average rent stood at about 12s. per acre, 

 and the crop was from fifteen to twenty bushels, 

 the rent amounted to from 3s. 6d. to 5s. 8d. in the 

 costs of production of each quarter of Russian 

 wheat ; while in this country, where the rent and 

 taxes are valued (in the Mark Lane Express 

 figures) at no less than 40s. per each wheat- 

 growing acre, and the crop is taken at thirty 



