Wheat  Prices  and  the  World's  Production. 
109 
The  situation  in  the  summer  of  1909  was  a difficult  one  ; 
but  in  the  most  critical  months,  those  immediately  preceding 
the  harvest,  the  situation  (again  from  the  consumers’  point  of 
view)  was  saved  by  very  large  shipments  from  India,  which 
had  a good  surplus  for  export. 
The  world’s  harvest  of  1909  has  proved  very  much  better 
than  its  predecessors  of  1907  and  1908,  and,  in  particular,  the 
yields  in  Russia  and  North  America  have  been  abundant. 
Prices  have  been  firm,  for  Germany  is  demanding  more  than 
ever,  and  stocks  have  become  very  depleted  in  the  two  lean 
years  which  have  now  passed. 
In  the  preceding  pages  we  have  traced  the  history  of  wheat 
prices  during  the  nineteenth  century.  An  examination  has 
been  made  of  the  changes  which  have  occurred  in  the  con- 
ditions of  supply  and  demand,  and  it  has  been  indicated  that 
the  rise  in  the  price  of  wheat  is,  in  part,  a movement  common 
to  all  commodities,  and,  in  part,  a result  of  the  widening  of 
the  demand  for  wheat,  and  of  a restriction  of  old  sources  of 
supply.  Further,  prices  now  no  longer  depend  on  the  weather 
in  one  part  only  of  the  world.  For  the  British  agriculturist,  as 
for  farmers  all  over  the  world,  the  problem  is  how  to  support 
himself  in  lean  years,  when  the  value  of  his  produce  is  low, 
thanks  to  large  crops  elsewhere.  To  some  extent,  the  British 
farmer  has  been  compensated  by  the  fall  in  rent  of  corn  land 
and  the  reduced  cost  of  harvesting,  though  the  small  area 
under  wheat  shows  that  the  balances  require  further  adjust- 
ment. In  past  centuries  it  was  often  the  case  that  a small  yield 
was  more  remunerative  than  a large  one,  but  now  there  is  no 
longer  any  temptation  for  him  “to  hang  himself  on  expectation 
of  plenty.”  To  some  extent  the  problem  may  be  solved  by 
mixed  farming,  the  farmer  being  compensated  for  a bad  grain 
harvest,  let  us  say,  by  a good  root  crop.  The  question  has  also 
been  partly  evaded  by  cultivating  produce  not  easily  sent  from 
a distance,  such  as  fruit  and  vegetables.  But  these  devices  are 
useless  when  the  conditions  make  a single  cereal  crop  cultivated 
year  after  year  a necessity. 
In  a rather  different  way,  also,  something  has  been  done  to 
make  the  yield  more  steady.  Better  drainage  prevents  some 
of  the  damage  of  floods  ; and  the  wider  dissemination  of 
meteorological  intelligence,  especially  in  harvest  time,  has 
enabled  the  farmer  to  make  the  most  of  fine  weather,  and  to 
limit  the  damage  caused  by  rain. 
It  remains  to  consider  whether  the  future  level  of  prices 
will  be  sufficient  to  encourage  wheat  growing  in  the  country. 
Prices  are  becoming  steady ; but  is  it,  on  the  whole,  at  a 
remunerative  level  ? We  have  seen  that  the  demand  has 
steadily  increased  with  the  growing  town  population  of  the 
