Indian Wheat Trade. 



499 



holdings less than 31 acres in extent, where it amounts to 3*4 

 per cent., while it decreases as the holdings increase in size, 

 and amounts to only 0*87 per cent, on the farms exceeding 

 10,000 acres. The comparatively small proportion of culti- 

 vated land is explained by the fact that the greater part of 

 the land is used for grazing purposes. 



The acreage comprised in the holdings referred to above is 

 for the most part land alienated from the Crown, though it 

 includes in some cases portions of Crown land attached to 

 holdings otherwise owned by private persons. There is, 

 however, in addition to the foregoing, an area of 118,338,798 

 acres of Crown land, not connected with alienated holdings, 

 occupied by 2,866 persons, so that the total area of land 

 occupied for agriculture and grazing purposes in the Colony 

 is 161,857,719 acres, of which 160,035,890 acres are utilised 

 for grazing and dairying, and 1,821,829 acres for agriculture. 



{ Wealth and Progress of New South Wales, 1897-98. ) 



The Indian Wheat Trade. 



In his review of the trade of British India in 1898-99, Mr. 

 O'Conor, CLE., Director General of Statistics, states that the 

 circumstances of that year could not have been better for 

 the Indian wheat grower in Northern India. An excellent 

 harvest was reaped, and just as it was put into the market, 

 and before prices had time to recede to the level of the period 

 preceding the famine year, a wave of higher prices in the 

 consuming markets set in under the influence of speculative 

 action in the United States. Prices subsequently fell o wing- 

 to the fact that the American supplies of wheat proved to be 

 larger than was anticipated, but before the fall had reached 

 the former level India had exported a quantity much larger 

 than in any year since 1 890-1 891. 



The total exports of wheat from India in 1898-99 6ind in 

 each of the preceding five years were as follows :— 



Cwts. Cwts. 



1893-94 - - - 12,156,551 1896-97 - - - i,9io,553 

 1894.95 - - - 6,887,791 1897-98 - - - 2,392,607 

 1895-96 - - - 10,002,912 1898-99 - - - 19,520,496 



112 



