766 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ised much. In 1871 Russia gave 15,654,000 hundredweight, and in 

 the following year 17,855,658 hundredweight, a figure that was 

 not again attained until 1888. This effort was all the more neces- 

 sary, as Germany cut down her quota of supplies from an average of 

 more than 6,000,000 hundredweight a year to one of 3,000,000 

 hundredweight, and after a slight recovery in 1877 and 1878 began 

 to fall rapidly in the rank of wheat exporters to insignificance after 

 1880. Thus, at a time when England required larger supplies of for- 

 eign-grown wheat, Europe failed her. From 1871 to 1875 Europe 

 gave an average of 18,138,823 hundredweight, and in 1876 to 1880 

 only two thirds of that quantity, or 12,806,670 hundredweight. 

 Outside of Europe must be looked upon to make good the growing 

 deficiency of European supplies. 



The reason of this change of sources is not far to seek. The 

 land in Great Britain could be turned to more profitable use than 

 for wheat-growing. Writing in 1878, before the full force of the 

 current in agriculture could have been felt, Sir James Caird said: 

 m Excluding good lands capable of being rendered fertile by drain- 

 age, we appear to have approached a point in agricultural production 

 beyond which capital can be otherwise more profitably expended 

 in this country than in further attempting to force our poorer class 

 of soils. It is cheaper for us as a nation to get the surplus from 

 the richer lands of America and southern Russia, where the virgin 

 soil is still unexhausted; or from the more ancient agriculture of 

 India, which, with its cheap and abundant labor more skillfully 

 applied, and its means of transport extended and better utilized, 

 seems destined to become one of the principal sources of our future 

 supply of corn (wheat)." * 



At the time this was written it was assumed that the cost of 

 transporting a bushel of wheat from a distant country was about the 

 same as the rent paid by the wheat farmer in Great Britain. Given 

 ordinarily good returns, the home-grown wheat could meet the for- 

 eign wheat on an equality. Two circumstances combined to destroy 

 this relation. The one was an extraordinary succession of bad sea- 

 sons in England, and the other was such a development of produc- 

 tion abroad as to result in a permanently lower range of price. This 

 situation brought to bear an enormous pressure on agricultural prop- 

 erties, and a tendency to reduce rents. 



The first notable drop in the wheat acreage in England occurred 

 in 1876, and was due to the great floods in the autumn seedtime of 

 1875, which prevented a considerable proportion of the land being 

 sown.f In 1874 the acres returned under wheat were 3,391,440; 

 in 1875, 3,128,547; and in 1876, only 2,823,342, a loss in two 



* Caird. The Landed Interest, p. 6. f Ibid., p. 9. 



