8 WHEAT PRODUCTION IN NEW ZEALAND 
it is set aside for a few days prior to mixing with the 
rest of the wheat in that grade, for the purpose of 
allowing the producer to dispute the inspector’s 
decision. At the end of these few days of grace the 
wheat is mixed with quantities of the same grade and 
intimation that it has been received is forwarded by 
telegraph to the great markets of the States. At the 
same time the producer is given a receipt for the 
amount he has delivered at the depét. These official 
receipts can be readily turned into cash at the local 
banks, and thus are instruments of credit to the 
farmer. At the Central wheat markets most sales are 
made by grades in the absence of actual samples. The 
great markets of the United States are at Chicago, 
New York, Minneapolis, Duluth, and Kansas City, 
where vast quantities of wheat are bought and sold 
each year. 
Chicago, though not strictly a world’s market for 
wheat as indicated above, is the greatest. wheat market 
in the world, the sales amounting to as much as 
250,000,000 bushels in a year. The actual wheat 
received at Chicago is probably about 25,000,000 
bushels; but the system of dealing in futures is so 
well developed that the sales amount to about ten 
times this quantity. 
The term ‘‘future’’ is defined by Emery as a ‘‘con- 
tract for the future delivery of some commodity, 
without reference to specific lots, made under the 
rules of some commercial body in a set form, by which 
the conditions as to the unit of amount, the quality and 
the time of delivery are stereotyped and only the 
determination of the total amount and the price is left 
open to the contracting parties.’’* 
The different types of speculation which the system 
of ‘‘futures’’ gives rise to and the influence of these 
on prices is not strictly relevant to the present discussion, 
but will be returned to when the factors entering into 
the determination of price are being discussed. It 
*Speculation’’ page 46. 
