The Harvest of 1889 at Home and Abroad. 231 
tliat quantity, allowing for seed. The harvest recently gathered in 
is one of the best ever grown, but probably barely equal to the 
splendid one of 1886-7, when there was a surplus for export of 
about 8,000,000 bushels. Moreover, the area sown for the last crop 
was reported to be smaller than that of 1888-9. In spite of some 
very sanguine estimates of the new crop, it can scarcely exceed 
that of 1887, and may be put at about 24,500,000 bushels. Maize 
appears to be grown on about a million acres, and the new crop is a 
very good one— probably 20,000,000 bushels. 
Chile. — No satisfactory statistics for this country are available. 
The wheat crop recently harvested is reported to be a very abundant 
one, and it is estimated at about 16,000,000 bushels, as compared 
with about 12,000,000 bushels produced in the previous year. 
Egypt. — The wheat crop of Egypt in 1889 was estimated at 
about 6,000,000 bushels, as compared with 8,000,000 bushels in 
1888. The produce of 1890 is quite uncertain. 
India. — The final estimate of the wheat crop of British India 
for 1889, as issued by the Revenue and Agricultural Department, 
is 237,147,856 bushels, as compared with 260,372,800 bushels for 
1888. The crop of 1890 is expected to turn out much less than that 
of either of the two previous years. The following table shows the 
acreage and estimated yield in 1889, as compared with the figures 
for 1888 and with the averages for the four years 1885-9 : — 
1888 1889 Four years' average 
Area, acres .... 26,854,882 26,381,765 26,508,000 
Produce, bushels . . 260,372,800 237,147,856 262,404,224 
It will be seen from these figures that the area and production 
of wheat in India have declined in recent years. Last year's area 
was more than a million acres less than that of 1886. 
Otiiek Counteies. — It is impossible to obtain satisfactory 
statistics for some countries, includi?ag our own colonies in South 
Africa, of the produce of which colonial representatives in this 
country are not able to give information. South Africa is a grain- 
importing country, or set of countries, and it is therefore of less 
consequence than it otherwise would have been that no estimates of 
the wheat crop of the whole of that part of the world can be given. 
In the following account of the wheat crop of the principal countries 
of the world, however, I have taken the best available estimates for 
such countries as Asia Minor, Egypt, Persia, and Syria. 
The Wheat Crop of the Principal Countries 
of the World. 
" The Wheat Crop of the World " is a heading sometimes used 
by writers on the corn trade ; but it is a misleading one, as no one 
has ever even pretended to give a complete list of the produce of 
every country in which more or less wheat is grown. There are 
several countries in Asia, Africa, and South America in which the 
quantity is not even approximately known, and when quantities for 
China or Japan, for instance, are given, they can only be regarded 
