igog.] Census of Live Stock in Germany. 213 



and at the same time be of general benefit both to the 

 merchant and the cultivator. 



It is pointed out that the function of grain elevators in the 

 interior of the country would be to act as warehouses in which 

 produce could be protected against deterioration and loss, 

 until a favourable opportunity for its sale occurred. Under 

 present conditions grain in India is very perishable, and 

 although the cultivator may be under no obligation, from need 

 of money, to sell immediately after harvest, yet in order to 

 prevent loss from weevil, rats, and mould, the grain is com- 

 ?monly sold at low rates to firms who can run it out of the 

 country quickly and turn it into money. 



One of the advantages of elevators in the interior would 

 therefore be that in years of heavy crops they would expedite 

 transit in the earlier weeks, and preserve for later shipment 

 such surplus as the foreign markets did not want at that 

 time, while in years of shortage they would afford a reserve 

 of food for the people, and bring to the holders of wheat a 

 greater profit than they could have gained by exportation. 



In connection with this question a statement has been 

 prepared by the Commercial Intelligence Department of 

 India, showing the movement of wholesale prices of wheat 

 at Delhi for twelve years, beginning with 1897-98, from 

 which it appears that, taking the average price in April, May, 

 and June over the whole period as 100, there was on the 

 average a rise in the month of July of 2*18 per cent., which 

 increased to 10*90 per cent, in November, and to 13*48 per 

 cent, in February. Although individual years show varia- 

 tions from this general tendency, there was only one year 

 in this period in which the fall after harvest was so con- 

 siderable as to be serious, and it is considered, therefore, that 

 there should be an ample margin for the payment of interest 

 and maintenance charges on the elevators. 



The figures of the Census of live stock, which was taken 

 in Germany on December 2nd, 1907, have now been pub- 

 lished. It will be seen from the fol- 

 Census of Live Stock 1 . U1 ' r : t , 



. „ lowing table that there has been an 



in Germany. . & 



increase in all classes of animals, except 

 sheep, compared with earlier years : — 



