Agricultural  Competition. 
151 
any  committed,  was  against  Section  6 (i.)  (6),  which  deals  with 
the  delivery  of  an  invoice  false  in  any  material  particular  to  the 
prejudice  of  the  purchaser,  but  for  which  he  was  not  prosecuted. 
If  he  had  been,  it  might  have  been  difficult  to  succeed,  as  the 
percentages  were  much  higher  than  those  stated  in  the  invoice, 
and  the  purchaser,  in  fact,  obtained  a lietter  article  than 
appeared  by  the  invoice.  Lord  Alverstone  at  the  same  time 
expressed  no  opinion  as  to  whether  or  not  sharps  came  within 
Section  1 (ii.)  of  the  Act. 
Aubrey  J.  Spencer. 
15  Old  Square, 
Lincoln’s  Inn,  W.C. 
AGRICULTURAL  COMPETITION. 
A PRECISE  presentation  of  fluctuation  in  the  supplies  of 
agricultural  commodities  from  foreign  and  colonial  countries 
in  recent  years,  competing  with  home  products  in  our  markets, 
would  involve  the  tabulation  of  a great  mass  of  figures,  which 
it  is  considered  desirable  to  avoid.  It  will  be  understood,  then 
that  in  this  article  nothing  more  will  be  attempted  than  state- 
ments in  general  terms  of  the  comparative  importance  from 
this  point  of  view  of  the  chief  sources  of  our  agricultural 
imports,  together  with  such  indications  of  probable  growth  or 
decline  in  the  future  as  are  afforded  by  available  evidence. 
Wheat. 
For  a great  number  of  years  up  to  the  beginning  of  the 
present  century,  the  United  States  had  been  almost  invariably 
by  far  the  largest  contributor  to  our  imported  wheat  supply, 
Russia  being  usually  second.  This  preponderance  continued 
until  1904,  when  India  was  in  the  top  position,  Russia  being 
second,  and  Argentina  third.  In  that  year  our  imports  of 
wheat  grain  from  the  United  States  were  comparatively 
insignificant,  as  they  were  also  in  the  following  year,  when 
Russia,  Argentina,  and  India,  in  the  order  given,  sent  us  more 
than  three-fourths  of  the  total.  In  1906  the  United  States 
recovered  the  top  position,  but  had  to  give  place  to  Argentina 
in  1907  and  1908  in  respect  of  wheat  grain  alone,  though  not 
if  flour  be  included.  The  last-named  country  first  became  an 
important  exporter  of  wheat  in  1893,  since  which  year  a great 
advance  has  been  made,  of  course  with  fluctuations,  the  total 
shipments  to  all  countries  having  been  recently  from  fom-  to 
five  times  the  quantity  of  the  year  just  named. 
