The Future of Agricultural Competition. 
749 
siderable one in the next teji years as a whole. But the total 
for 1890 was smaller by about 100,000 acres than it was in 
1887. Moreover, the figures for 1891 show a decrease, as com- 
pared with those of 1890, in every Australasian colony ; the 
total being 3,537,091 acres. Speaking for South Australia, the 
Adelaide Observer of August 31, 1891, said: — "Very many 
wheat-growers have arrived at the conclusion that wheat-grow- 
ing by itself will not pay, and there are many hundreds of acres 
being planted with vines and fruit trees ; " also that the farmers 
" are devoting their thoughts to sheep and other sources of 
employment for their energies." Similarly, in Victoria, the 
Australasian says : — " We hear from several districts of an in- 
creasing demand for sheep by farmers who have hitherto turned 
their chief attention to grain. The low prices ruling for the 
latter cannot fail to influence the character of Australian agri- 
culture. Our farmers are evincing an inclination to vary their 
risks, and eventually, no doubt, farms in this colony will be 
assimilated more nearly to those in the United Kingdom." 
This unanimity of testimony in regard to the two principal 
wheat-producing colonies of Australasia is all the more signifi- 
cant from the fact that wheat in recent years has been very nearly 
as high in price at the Antipodes as in England. Even in New 
Zealand, wheat-growing has declined in recent years, the area 
in 1882 ha\-ing been 390,818 acres, and in 189 i only 301,400 
acres. Between 1885 and 1888 there was a recovery ; but since 
the latter year the acreage has fallen off by more than 00,000 
acres. Agricultural depression in New Zealand has long been 
notorious, and it has been equally se\'ere in South Australia, 
while in other Australasian colonies there has been only a ques- 
tion of its degree. The Colonial Governments have been fre- 
quently called upon to relax the very easy conditions upon which 
they have leased land, to excuse payments due, and even, in 
some cases, to provide seed for distressed farmers. 
Statistics for India as far back as 1870 are not available. 
But there is no doubt that the wheat acreage increased consid- 
erably during the decade ending with 1880. There was a 
further increase, too, stimulated by the trade with Europe, up 
to 188G, when the area harvested was about 27,405,742 acres; 
but the final report of the Revenue and Agricultural Depart- 
ment for 1891 puts the total at only 24,773,000 acres, thus 
showing a decrease of over 2,600,000 acres since 1880. This is 
all the more remarkable from the fact that the rupee prices of 
wheat and other food grains in India have been exceptionally 
high during the last five years. The apparent anomaly seems 
to show that the Indian authorities who contend that the export 
