ADDRESS. 



H. 



37 



In 1896 the area under wheat in the Governments of Russia and 

 Poland was 36,000,000 acres. But the yearly consumption of wheat per 

 head during the last ten years has declined 1 4 per cent., and the consump- 

 tion of bread is quite 30 per cent, less than is required to keep the popu- 

 lation in health. The grain reserved for seed has likewise decreased — the 

 peasantry limiting their sowing with the rise of taxation. The reduction 

 of 1-i per cent, in the unit consumption of bread in Russia has added, 

 during the last eighteen years, 1,360,000,000 bushels to the general wheat 

 supply. This factitious excess temporarily staved off scarcity in Europe. 



I. 



In the year 1897 there wei'e 2,371,441 acres under cultivation in 

 Manitoba, out of a total of 13,051,375 acres. The total area includes 

 water courses, lakes, forests, towns, and farms, land unsuitable for wheat- 

 growing, and land required for other crops. 



The moat trustworthy estimates give Canada a wheat area of not more 

 than six millions of acres in the next twelve years, increasing to a maxi- 

 mum of twelve millions of acres in twenty-five years. The development 

 of this promising area necessarily must be slow, since prairie land cannot 

 be laid under wheat in advance of a population sufficient to supply the 

 needful labour at seed time and harvest. As population increases so do 

 home demands for wheat. 



Acreage, Crop, and Exports of Wheat from Canada from 1891 to 189G. 



The net exports average 8,970,000 bushels yearly, being 24-3 per cent, 

 of the net product. 



K. 



The land under wheat in Austro-Hungary, according to the latest 

 official figures, is eleven million acres. The 1897-8 crop, including that 

 of Croatia- Slavonia, is fifty-five million bushels below that of 1896-7, and 

 as exports during the last five years have averaged less than 4,000,000 

 bushels per annum, the imports of wheat are expected to be large. 



