34 2 Agricultural Imports of Cereal Year, [sept., 



Taking, in the first place, wheat, which forms in point of 

 value the largest single item of any of our agricultural imports, 

 the past twelve months have seen further evidence of that 

 expansion in the receipts of wheat grain which has now been 

 so marked a feature of the corn trade for some years past. 

 Reference to the table on the next page will show that for the 

 five years 1895-96 to 1 899-1 900 the imports were fairly steady 

 at about 66 million cwt, while since then they have shown 

 a rapid growth, which has brought them up to a total of 

 105,125,000 cwt. in 1904-1905, an increase of over 60 per cent, in 

 five years. Wheat-flour, on the other hand, has not exhibited 

 any permanent signs of growth during the decade shown in the 

 table, and in the past year the imports were only 10,882,000 

 cwt., compared with a ten years' average of 20,380,000. 



Taking the wheat grain and flour together, and expressing 

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

 1904-5 represent 28,056,000 qrs. (of 480 lb.) of wheat, com- 

 pared with 27,927,000 qrs. in 1903-4. The estimated quantity 

 of this grain obtained in the United Kingdom from the harvest 

 of 1904 was 4,740,000 qrs., so that the foreign grain represented 

 no less than 85*5 per cent, of the gross supply available for all 

 purposes in these islands. 



With regard to the countries contributing to the supply, the 

 receipts from each of the principal sources are given in the 

 following table : — 





In Thousands of Cwt. 





1904-5. 



1903-4. 



1902-3. 



1901-2. 



India 



29,083 



23,144 



11,908 



7,428 



Russia ... 



28,823 



19,331 



13,721 



3,o6i . 



Argentina 



24,085 



17,490 



11,856 



4,973 



United States ... 



4,558 



12,897 



32,035 



41,584 



Canada ... 



3,547 



8,355 



11,471 



8,302 



Australia 



12,758 



6,322 



79 



6,048 



The United States, which fell last year from the position it 

 had for many years occupied as the principal exporter of 

 wheat to this country, again sent a very small quantity of wheat 

 while India, Russia, and Argentina maintained approximately 

 the relative positions they took up last year. The imports 



