78 
The Indian Wheat Trade. 
Our own wheats have colour and sweetness, but the weak point of English 
flour is strength, and that is precisely the quality which Russian grain can 
supply. So there is indeed a saying in the trade, which was repeated in our 
hearing by a well-known Metropolitan miller, ' When Russian wheat is cheap 
the English miller can do well ; but when it is scarce, as it has been during 
the past few years, then come hard times.' A flood of Russian wheat would 
doubtless be anything but a blessing for this country, but, on the other 
hand, a free supply at easy prices wiU be most welcome to our millers." 
With respect to other wlieat-exporting countries, if India can 
successfully compete with Russia and the United States, she 
has no cause to fear any other rival. There are portions of 
British colonies and other countries in which wheat can be pro- 
duced as cheaply as in the most favoured districts of the United 
States ; but it has never yet been shown that any of them could 
send wheat to Europe at a lower price with profit. 
The last question to be considered in connection with the 
Indian wheat trade is whether there is not a natural limit to 
the quantities of wheat, such as is now produced in India, 
which Europe will receive. Indian wheat certainly does not 
improve our bread, much as the bakers like flour made from it, 
because of the extra quantity of water which it will absorb, and 
if too much of it were used bread-eaters would rebel. This 
fact has been more patent than ever since the finer qualities of 
Indian wheat have come in only very small quantities. Scarcely 
any No. 1 wheat of any kind has been imported of late, No. 2 
Calcutta Club being about the standard quality of the great 
bulk of our supply. Moreover, the large buyers whom I have 
consulted, with only one exception, declare that the quality of 
the wheat sent here from India has, as a whole, deteriorated. 
But, with respect to the inherent peculiarities of Indian and 
other wheat, from the miller's point of view, I find the subject 
so pithily summarised in a passage contained in the " Miller " 
Prize Essay on " The Mixing of Home and Foreign Wheats for 
the Use of British and Irish ilillers in the Manufacture of 
Flour," by Mr. W. T. Bates, mill manager to ^Messrs. Baxendell 
& Sons, of Liverpool, that I make no apology for quoting the 
paragraphs in full : — 
"The three chief qualities in wheat are, from a general point of view, 
strength, colour, and Jtaiour. Some few wheats possess all these, but gener- 
ally one in excess. We shall, however, find it to our advantage to buy 
these various qualities in separate wheats, and combine them for a standard 
flour. These diflereut properties are the product of different countries and 
latitudes, as well as of climate. To the latter, even more than soil, cultiva- 
tion, and latitude, arc due the strongest and best wheats of the earth. We 
can even classify our wlieats, and divide them broadly into qualities, almost 
according to climate. Thus the strong wheats of America are produced on 
the elevated prairies, which have a cold, dry winter and a hot, dry summer. 
Russia, with a similar climate, produces similar wheat ; while the seaboard 
of both countries, being damper, produces a milder, weaker wheat. With a 
