48 On the Conditions of Wheat-Growing in India. 
railways recently opened out have diverted to Bombay and 
Karaclii a large proportion of the wheat that used to find its 
way to Calcutta. 
There is, however, a strong feeling that the severity with 
which the Calcutta merchants seem to wish to preserve the 
minimum refraction, at five per cent., is distinctly operating in 
the direction of lowering rather than enhancing the trade. 
This is too large a question to deal with in this place. Its 
issues extend to Europe. We were once walking through 
the Exchange where samples are exhibited on which tiae 
Mark Lane trade is transacted. One of the most influential 
corn-merchants in town thrust his hand into a sack of Indian 
wheat and exhibited the dirt it contained. Pointing to the 
gram in one sample, the barley in another, he remarked, 
" Could you send us your wheats free of mud, and not adulte- 
rated with these other grains ? It would command a much 
higher market." The reply might fairly well have been given, 
" When you use your influence with your Indian agents to 
abolish a fixed rate of refraction, Indian wheat within a twelve- 
month will reach the market in a perfectly clean condition." 
It would be absurd to expect a cultivator to sell clean wheat 
when he would be paid exactly at the same rate as if it con- 
tained five per cent, of dirt. That is precisely the position ; 
and the Bombay Chamber of Commerce apjDears to be giving 
indications of a desire to lower the rate of refraction to two per 
cent. Why not abolish it entirely, and pay lower rates for all 
adulterated wheats ? One Bombay firm has announced that it 
will pay at a higher rate for clean wheat than for wheat contain- 
ing dirt and impurities. 
A most elaborate investigation has been instituted in every 
province of India into the question of this adulteration. With 
few exceptions, indeed, it has been found that the cultivator 
takes no part in the trade of adulteration. His methods of 
winnowing and storing are imperfect, but there is no induce- 
ment to modify this. He can clean now his grain, by the 
means at his disposal, considerably below the rate of refraction. 
He makes no gain by producing clean ; on the contrary, he is 
perfectly well aware that the middle-men employed by the 
exporting firms adulterate the grain before making it over to 
the firms that pay them at a minimum rate of five per cent, 
refraction. 
An extensive coiTespondence has passed on this subject. 
The Indian Chambers of Commerce keep recommending to 
(lovernment that the only action that can be taken is to urge 
upon the cultivators to grow only the better-class wheats, to 
avoid growing mixed crops, and to endeavour to produce as 
