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Gambling in Farm Produce. 
Board of Trade markets. Therefore, if we put the statements 
of Mr. Steevens and Mr. Davis together, it appears that the sales 
of futures in a year are about ninety times the amount of grain 
actually disposed of in those markets. For Mr. Steevens states 
in effect that these future sales are nine times the total crop, and 
Mr. Davis declares that less than a tenth of the total crop is 
passed through the market in which futures are sold. This 
calculation, it will be observed, is not made on my authority, but 
is a deduction from the statements of two eminent authorities in 
the United States, one an advocate and the other an opponent 
of the option system. 
Of course, the point of these statements is that an enormous 
preponderance of the business done under the future system is 
what is called “ wind-selling ” ; that is, business in which no 
commodities pass from one party to the other. Even if there be 
delivery of a particular lot of produce on the maturity of a con- 
tract terminating three or four months ahead, it may be sold and 
re-sold any number of times in the interval, and delivery pro- 
bably will not take place in respect of one of the intermediate 
sales ; and who is to ensure that delivery takes place at the 
maturity of a contract, provided that the two parties to it agree 
to settle by a balance in money instead of by the delivery of the 
commodity ? 
At a conference of the National Board of Trade on the Anti- 
Option Bill, held last year, Mr. Davis said that 95 per cent, of 
the wheat that reached Chicago in the preceding week would 
not grade : that is to say, it was not good enough in quality 
to rank as No. 2, the lowest grade in which option-trading 
is carried on. He added that 98 per cent, of the wheat grown in 
Kansas in 1892 was below grade, and had to be sold by sample. 
Yet, he went on to say, the prices of the entire crop were ruled 
by those prevailing for the very small proportion of the crop 
sold many times over under the option system ; for it is only the 
price of graded wheat which is quoted in the market reports. 
The proportion of the American wheat crop moved to this 
country directly under the option or future system cannot be 
stated ; but the whole of the quantity exported is moved on the 
basis of prices prevailing for options as a general rule, although 
sometimes prices are relatively higher in America than they are 
in England. The option system has extended to some other 
European countries besidesEngland, and notably to France ; but 
apart from the proportion of grain exported under the system, 
the prices of options and futures in America rule the prices of 
wheat and maize throughout the civilised world to a great 
extent, and especially when, as is generally the case, the American 
