656 
The Price of Imported Grain. 
less than 6^ million quarters, and consequently probably a less pro- 
portion of the total crop than even one-fourth. 
In the case of imported grain no such difficulties occur. We 
know precisely both its quantity and its value, since they are faith- 
fully recorded by the Custom House authorities, and duly published 
in the " Annual Statement of the Trade of the United Kingdom." 
From these figures the statement on page 655 has been worked out. 
The most remarkable fact in the figures recorded is to be found in 
the case of wheat. Probably very few persons would be prepared for 
the statement that the total quantity of imported wheat was worth 
on an average 2s. 10c?. per quarter more than home-grown wheat. 
It would be admitted that wheat from certain countries — such as 
Australia and California, for instance — makes more money than 
English, but it would be thought that the general bulk sold for less. 
The figures show that not only is the average for foreign countries 
and British Possessions — whether alone or together — considerably 
higher than the official average for England and Wales, but that 
the average value of the wheat imported from every country separ- 
ately distinguished — with the exception only of Bulgaria and Egypt 
— equals or exceeds the average of home-grown wheat. These two 
countries send between them only 961,000 cwt. out of a total of 
imported wheat of 58| million cwt., so that it may be said that 
practically the whole of the wheat sent to this country makes a 
higher average price than that grown at home. 
In the case of barley the consignments from eight different 
countries made a higher average price than that of home-grown 
produce, but they only accounted altogether for some 3.y million 
cwt. out of a total of 17^ million cwt. imported. Consequently 
the large quantity sent from Russia, Roumania, Turkey, ifcc, at alow 
value, brought down the average value of foreign barley to 6s. per 
quarter below the official average price for home-grown barley. 
A result similar in kind though not in degree is shown in the 
case of oats, the price of the imported grain being brought down 
by the great bulk — about seven-eighths of the whole — of low-priced 
Russian produce. Thus the average for foreign oats is ^s. 5d. per 
quarter below that officially quoted for English oats. 
The general tendency of these figures is to show that to an 
extent much larger probably than is commonly supposed, the British 
farmer is being beaten in the matter of quality — or at any rate of 
adaptability to market, which is practically the same thing. Prices 
for wheat, at their best, are bad enough nowadays, but it seems that 
it is the foreigner who gets them at their best, while the British 
farmer has to put up with something less. This is surely a fact 
deserving careful consideration. 
R. Henry Rew. 
