Indian Wheat Trade. 



227 



Among the horses enumerated in the latter year, there were 

 3,110 stallions, 132,752 geldings, 196,430 mares, 73,539 young 

 horses under three years old, and 43,433 foals under one 

 year. 



Compared with the returns for 1893, the principal features 

 revealed by an examination of the details for cattle in 1898 

 •are an increase of 56,000 head in cows and a decline of nearly 

 43,000 in the number of oxen. For these classes the returns 

 just issued show 1,067,139 cows and 69,547 oxen, against 

 1,01 1,098 and 1 12,259 respectively in 1893. It is interesting 

 to note that of the cows returned last year 175,799 were ten 

 years old and over. The other cattle included 41,638 bulls, 

 •against 42,005 in 1893 ; 255,533 heifers, against 246,169; and 

 309,583 calves, against 284,659 at the earlier period. 



Sheep alone show a diminution of numbers since the 

 enumeration of 1893. Rams numbered 40,406 last year, as 

 compared with 49,213 at the earlier date; wethers and fat 

 sheep one year old and over are returned as 65,803, against 

 -90,245 ; ewes 473,268, against 548,355 ; and lambs under one 

 year 494,936, against 558,739- 



The increase in swine is noteworthy in connection with the 

 development of the Danish bacon trade, to which reference 

 was made in the last issue of this Journal (p. 7). 



Indian Wheat Trade and Prices. 



The Director-General of Statistics in India, Mr. J, E. 

 C Conor, states that speculative activity in the United States 

 maintained the price of wheat at a comparatively high level for 

 some time in 1898, and the excellent crop harvested in India 

 in the spring enabled the owners of the grain to put it on the 

 market in large quantities at very profitable rates. The exports 

 of wheat during the official year 1898-99 were, as a conse- 

 quence, much larger — approximating to a million tons — than 

 they had been since the Russian famine swelled the demand 

 for Indian wheat in 1891 ; but it is not expected that they 

 will be at all so large during the present official year, 

 because prices in Great Britain have receded to the low level 

 which prevailed for years before the sudden rise of last year. 



p 2 



