June 1896.] INDIAN TRADE IN AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE. 23 



wheat-flour from India in each of the last eight years are shown 

 below : — 



Year. 



Lbs. 



• 



Year. 



IibS. 



18S7-88 



36,082,000 



1891-92 



61,028,000 



1888-89 



36,290,000 



1892-53 



57,940,000 



1889-90 



48,572,000 



1893-94 



68,446,000 



1890-91 



47,036,000 



1894-95 



65,916,000 



The quantity exported to the United Kingdom increased from 

 421,000 lbs. in 1893-94 to 698,000 lbs. in 1894-95, and 335,000 

 lbs. were sent to Belgium in the latter year. These, it is 

 suggested, are but the small beginnings of a large trade in the 

 future with Europe. It is maintained that with cheap Indian 

 labour it ought to be possible for India to compete not unsuc- 

 cessfully with European and American millers. This is in the 

 future, however ; for the present the bulk of the trade is carried 

 on with Mauritius, Aden, Arabia, Ceylon, the East African 

 coast, and Egypt. 



The trade in the millets w-as a little better than in 1893-94, 

 but still below the average. The exports of pulse were very 

 low, but during the last five years there has been a curious rise 

 and fall in this trade in alternate years. 



There was a very large increase in the exports of manures, 

 viz., from 51,390 tons in 1893-94 to 79,728 tons in 1894-95, 

 and if the trade should continue on and above this level it must 

 be regarded as one of some considerable importance. The 

 exports, however, consist mainly of animal bones, and it is 

 possible to connect the large export of hides and skins in the 

 year with the increase in bones. The exports are mainly to the 

 United Kingdom, Germany, and Belgium. 



Like animal bones, rice-bran must be regarded as a waste 

 material in the present conditions of India. There is no demand 

 for it there, but it is sought by other countries as a cattle food, 

 and is now a not inconsiderable article of export. It is evolved 

 in the Burma rice-mills in the husking and cleaning of rice, and 

 the price obtained for it is of material assistance in augmenting 

 the profits of the industry. The quantity available for export 

 depends on the quantity of rice passing through the mills. The 

 exports in 1894-95 exceeded 95,000 tons. 



Though the exports of seeds during the year (20,887,000 cwts.) 

 were much smaller than in 1893-94 (24,229,000 cwts.), which 

 was a year of abnormal activity, the quantity shipped was 

 larger than in any other year. In 1893-94 there was a quite 

 extraordinary demand for rapeseed in consequence of an inferior 

 colza crop in Europe, and the Indian rapeseed crop happened to 

 have been unusually abundant, so that the demand was fully 

 met. Last year the crop was not quite so good and the demand 

 abated, but the exports were still unusually large. The value of 



