1906.] Agricultural Imports of Cereal Year. 349 



marked the year 1904-5 would be maintained, and the figures 

 have in fact fallen to nearly the level of 1903-4. The fluctua- 

 tions will be seen in the table on the next page, which show the 

 extremely rapid advances made in recent years. Wheat-meal 

 and flour, on the other hand, have rather shown a tendency to 

 decrease, and the amount recorded in 1905-6, though greater 

 than the extremely small import of the previous year, is still 

 materially below the quantities purchased in the earlier years 

 shown in the table. 



Taking the wheat and wheat-flour together and expressing 

 the flour in its approximate weight as grain, the imports in 

 1905-6 represent 26,741,000 qrs. (of 480 lb.) of wheat, compared 

 with 28,056,000 qrs. in 1904-5 and 27,927,000 qrs. in 1903-4. 

 The estimated quantity of this grain obtained in the United 

 Kingdom from the harvest of 1905 was 7,542,000 qrs., whereas 

 the poorer harvests of the two preceding years only yielded 

 4,740,000 qrs. and 6,136,000 qrs. respectively. If, therefore, we 

 take the wheat and wheat-flour available both from home and 

 foreign sources during these three years, exclusive of stocks 

 carried over, we find that the aggregate quantity recorded in 

 1903-4 was 34,063,000 qrs., in 1904-5 32,796,000 qrs., and in 

 1905-6 34,283,000 qrs. 



With regard to the countries contributing to the supply, the 

 receipts from each of the principal sources are given in the 

 following table. 



Country of Export. 



In Thousands of Cwt. 



1905-6. 



1904-5. 



1903-4. 



1902-3. 



India 

 Russia ... 

 Argentina 

 United States ... 

 Canada ... 

 Australia 



11,743 

 18,377 

 22,890 



17,917 

 11,177 



7,488 



29.083 

 28,823 

 24,085 

 4,558 

 3,547 

 12,758 



23,144 

 19,331 

 17,490 

 • 12,897 



8,355 

 6,322 



11,908 

 13,721 

 11,856 

 32,035 

 11,471 

 79 



Perhaps the most noticeable feature is the recovery shown in 

 the United States trade. After occupying for many years the 

 position of principal exporter to this country it has now for 

 three successive years been surpassed by several other ex- 



