'1 



28 The Oats Supply of the United Kingdom. 



Russia's annual exports of oats have amounted in recent 

 years to an average of about 6,250,000 quarters. Practically 

 half of this quantity is shipped to British ports, and most of 

 the remainder is distributed to Austria-Hungary and the four 

 Continental countries mentioned in the preceding paragraph. 

 It is estimated that the area devoted to the cultivation of oats 

 in the 71 governments of the Russian Empire extends to 

 42,000,000 acres, from which an estimated crop of nearly 

 68,000,000 quarters was harvested last year. 



In Sweden the acreage sown with oats is larger than that 

 occupied by all the other cereals combined. During the past 

 decade over 2,000,000 acres of land have been kept under 

 this crop in that country, and the average annual produc- 

 tion has been 7,500,000 quarters. For the same period, the 

 average yearly exportation of oats from Sweden amounted to 

 nearly 900,000 quarters, but this relatively high average is 

 due to large shipments in some of the earlier years of the 

 decade, for in no year since 1894 has the quantity exported 

 exceeded 540,000 quarters. The United Kingdom purchases 

 about seventy-five per cent of Sweden's exports of this cereal, 

 and the greater part of the remainder is sold to Denmark. 



The average value per quarter of the oats imported into 

 the United Kingdom from all sources during the past ten 

 years has ranged from iSs. 4d. in 1891, to 13s. 4d. per quarter 

 in 1895, the range for British oats in the same period being 

 from 20S. to 14s. 6d. The price of Swedish oats in our 

 markets is usually between two and three shillings higher 

 than that of the Russian and American varieties. The 

 average import value of American oats in the past three 

 years has been 13s. id. per quarter, while that of Russian oats 

 has been 13s. 6d. per quarter. For the same three years, the 

 average price of British oats was 15s. 5d. per quarter. 



