On the Conditions of Wheat-Growing in India. 47 
Acres. 
Behar 678,500 
Bhagulpur 303,600 
Burdwan 4,709 
Chutla Nagpur 1,500 
Orissa 1,100 
Total .... 989,409 
At the experimental farms in Bengal a most useful series 
of experiments have recently been performed with the view to 
determining the manures best suited for wheat. It is somewhat 
surprising that in all similar experiments throughout India, on 
the most diversified of soils, the result should have been the 
same, namely, that the best returns of wheat are obtained by a 
manure containing nitrogen. 
One of the finest wheats in India is that grown at Buxar, 
in Bengal. Efforts, more or less successful, have been made 
to encourage the cultivation of this wheat in every part of the 
province where it is found possible. 
The bulk of the wheats shipped, however, from Calcutta, 
and which appear in the foreign markets as Bengal wheats, are 
not grown in that province. It is impossible to look at the re- 
turns of the wheat imported to and expoi'ted from Calcutta 
during the past eight or ten years without feeling that there 
must surely be some undercurrent affecting the trade far more 
powerfully than the extension of railway communication. 
Maunds. Maunds. 
1877- 78 . . , 71,30,477 1881-82 . . . 1,07,86,269 
1878- 79 . . . 26,46,683 1882-83 . . . 73,08,081 
1879- 80 . . . 37,93,514 1883-84 . . . 1,12.12,086 
1880- 81 . . . 71,18,198 1884-85 . . . 46,97,139 
These were the imports into Calcutta during the years indi- 
cated. But taking the two chief provinces from which the 
wheat is obtained, we have the following result : — 
Behar 
Nortli-West Provinces 
Maunds 
Maunds 
1877-78 
20,03,787 
81,38,034 
1878-79 
9,83,645 
11,03,382 
1879 80 
16,09,729 
14,92,312 
1880 81 
39,75,726 
18,90,523 
1881 82 
47,25,218 
45,89,877 
22,42,249 
43,33,111 
1883-84 
33,54,234 
70.47,837 
1884-85 
9,91,048 
30,81,031 
Are these fluctuations natural, and do the figures indicate a 
decline in the trade ; or, in its erratic course, shall we see it 
exceeding the maximum hitherto attained ? Of course, the 
