The Indian WJieat Trade. 
79 
milder climate we get the autumn-sown winter wheat ; and still further 
south, with a still milder winter, we get the white wheats of Californin, 
Australia, Chili, Cape Colony, and others ; while Oreg-on, being damper, yields 
a similar wheat, but milder and perhaps of better flavour. 
" As a rule, the stronger the wheat the less flavour it has, while the 
milder the wheat the better the flavour. But excessive moisture is, of course, 
destructive of both qualities, as is also excessive heat and dryness — as witness 
the desiccated climate of Egypt, which has no moisture but that supplied 
by the Nile ; this seems to be destitute of any good quality. The wheats of 
India, which are produced under hot conditions, are vastly ditl'ereut from 
the latter ; they have strength and give fairly good results, but their strength 
is as much a matter of dryness as gluten. The difference between these 
wheats and the Russian is very marked ; while the gluten of the latter is 
wiry and tenacious, that of the former is harsh and bitter, the result of 
climate alone. 
" The antipodes of this, almost, is the mild, mellow-glutened wheat of 
England, the produce of our damp, humid climate. This wheat has one, or 
perhaps two qualities, in which it is unexcelled by any in the world — viz. 
flavour and colour. If this wheat entered into every mixture, and its flour 
into every loaf of bread, we should eat our bread and butter with more plea- 
sure than we do now. We have of late years milled strong, dry, water- 
drinking wheat, not because it made more agreeable bread, or pleased the 
public taste, but because the bakers, our customers, demanded it. And 
why ? Simply because it enabled them to make a greater number of loaves 
and larger prohts." 
For an ideal mixture Mr. Bates gives one part of Duluth, 
one of No. 1 Spring, one of Australian, and one of fine white 
English ; or, as an alternative, one of Kubanka, one of fine 
Arymia or Saxonska, one of fine Californian, and two of fine 
white English. Thus, in his ideal mixtures, Mr. Bates does 
not include any Indian wheat, from which the inference is that 
he prefers other sorts for even the qualities in wliich Indian 
wheats excel. But when he goes on to give mixtures for 
various descriptions of trade demands, he does not leave out a 
fair proportion of Indian wheat. 
A great deal has been written about the " dirty " condition 
of Indian samples, and efforts have been made to remedy this 
evil, but hitherto without success. It has just been announced 
that, according to an agreement entered into among the export- 
ing firms of Calcutta, the up-country seller will have a right, as 
heretofore, to deliver wheat containing five per cent, of foreign 
substances at contract price, or two per cent, more, subject to 
equivalent reduction in price ; but that if the wheat contains 
more than seven per cent, of impurity, the dealer will be so 
mulcted as to make it to his interest to purchase only fairly clean 
samples. But the great difficulty has been — and there is nothing 
to show that it has been removed — that buyers of Indian wheat 
in this country prefer cheap " dirty " wheat to comparatively 
dear "clean" wheat. The fact is that the " dirt consists 
chiefly of various kinds of grain and seeds, which are of some 
