177 
the recent agricultural and scientific work concerning wheat 
done in Rhodesia, British East Africa, tropical and sub-tropical 
Australia, tropical India, and the Sudan. 
Temperate climes are the habitat of wheat, and pioneers in 
new countries have hitherto sought to give it such environ- 
ment, even in the tropics, but very large areas of good land 
are available for the production of wheat, if varieties can be 
found or produced, which will thrive on a small rainfall, or if 
irrigation can be provided on a large scale. Everywhere rust 
is the enemy, and the application of recent botanical dis- 
coveries, more particularly the researches of Professor Biffen 
and others as to the inheritance by plants of immunity or 
susceptibility to disease, are likely to increase greatly the area 
upon which wheat growing can become a profitable commercial 
proposition. 
The author also refers to the efforts made to improve the 
milling and baking qualities of wheat. He specially directs 
attention to such results obtained in India, where Mr. and Mrs. 
Howard, using as parents varieties indigenous to the country, 
have by hybridizing produced new ones of greatly superior 
quality, which are likely on European markets to realize 
relatively higher prices, fully equal to those obtained for the 
best Canadian and American kinds. 
The yield of grain per acre is small not only in the tropics, 
but in most countries, and by the production of varieties, each 
one in the highest degree suitable to some environment, the 
yield of wheat per acre, and therefore the total crop of the 
world, can be greatly increased. 
The Cuarrman: Gentlemen—The next paper on the agenda 
deals with a somewhat cognate subject, namely, that of ‘‘ The 
Indian Grain Trade.’”’ It is written by Mr. Frederick Noél- 
Paton, the Director-General of Commercial Intelligence in 
India, who is, unfortunately, unable to be here this afternoon 
through illness. In his absence we are fortunate to find that 
the paper will be read by Sir James Wilson, who is himself an 
authority on the same subject. 
THE INDIAN GRAIN TRADE. 
By FRepERicK No£t-Paron, 
Director-General of Commercial Intelligence, India. 
[ApsTrAct. ] 
Areas under food-grains in India. Magnitude. Constitution 
of statistics. System of forecasts. Production value. The 
mass of the food-grains retained in the country. Conditions 
12 
