Variation in tJic Price and Supply of Wheat. 165 
In 1847, when the prospect of a late deficient harvest sent 
up the price of wheat in England from 50.9. to over lOO.v., the 
exports from Odessa were doubled. In 1867 — one of the worst 
harvests ever known in England and France — there was a similar 
demand for corn, and the southern jiorts of Russia sent to Eng- 
land the unprecedented quantity of 2,i*0(),000 quarters of wheat, 
including the sv/ecpings of the most distant provinces. The 
average exports, however, increase but little, and the corn-trade 
of tlic Black Sea proves inelastic. Those who accept too literally 
such phrases as " boundless tracts " and "inexhaustible fertility," 
may learn from the Reports that the supposed advantages to the 
corn-grower are often counterpoised by some actual drawback. 
We are told that steam-power ought to be introduced on the 
large estates, and that these fertile provinces would outstrip the 
world, if they had water-communication and practicable roads. 
The completion of the railway to Kishineff would enable South 
Russia to supply England with corn at prices which Avould defy 
competition. But then we find that fuel is costly, repairs are 
dillicult, and engines liable to blow up under native manage- 
ment : and on completion of this railway we find that the main 
line must be followed by branch lines, opening up the grain 
districts generally ; after which, and with proper roads — of 
which there are none at present — it is believed that grain will 
be shipped at less than one-fourth of its present cost, and Odessa 
become one of the chief granaries of the v/orld. But the dis- 
closure of the droughts to which the country is subject, "and 
v/hich will always be an evil," moderates our expectations. 
Roads and railroads can hardly be built to collect the surplus 
pi'oduce of an immense tract of country, thinly ialiabited by a 
rude population. River and canal navigation is always cheaper 
than railways, and America is not within the limits of occa- 
sional droughts. The reader will remark the low average yield 
of South Russia, and the rapid exhaustion of " virgin soil." 
The Consuls' quotations of the price and a statement of the 
exportations of wheat are given in the Appendix. 
Countries of the Meditekeasiean. 
Irrigation, &,~c. — North of the rainless region of Africa, and 
including the coasts of the Mediterranean, is a district where 
rain seldom falls in the summer, the currents of heated air which 
ascend frorn the Sahara preventing the formation of rain in the 
upper strata of the atmosphere. This district includes the coast 
of Africa, the southern parts of Spain, Portugal, and Italy, the 
island of Sicily, and the whole of Greece. The general average 
yearly fall of rain is perhaps 30 inches, equal to that of the 
