254 Advantages in Agricidtural Production. 
States as the country best suited for the production of wheat, 
though it was obvious that where the average yield was only a 
little over 12 bushels an acre, the natural advantages could not 
be high, apart from the great abundance of cheap land. Ex- 
tremely cheap methods of production and very low rail and 
ocean freights, however, greatly helped the American wheat- 
growers. Yet, after having grown two phenomenally great 
crops in succession and a moderate one to follow, evidence 
of the unremunerative character of the wheat-growing 
industry is stronger than ever. Last year the area under 
wheat, which had risen to 39,916,897 acres in 1891, according 
to the Department of Agriculture, fell to 34,629,418 acres, and 
it is well known that the area under winter wheat for next 
harvest is much smaller than it was in 1893, while less spi’ing 
wheat also has probably been sown. If we compare last year’s 
average with that which was grown nine years ago, we find a 
decrease of nearly five million acres, in spite of an increase of 
more than eleven millions in the population. In a country where 
it is practically imperative to sow wheat on new land, this great 
decrease in its cultivation is sufficient to prove that the advan- 
tages of the United States in the production of this grain are 
not sufficient to enable her to stand up against the tremendous 
fall in prices. In this connexion it may be mentioned in 
passing that the Senate Committee on Agricultural Depression, 
in a report recently issued, came to the conclusion that, in the 
great State of Illinois, wheat has not paid the cost of production 
in six out of ten years ending with 1892. 
South Australia used to boast of being able to grow wheat 
more cheaply than any other country in the world, in spite of 
her miserable ten years’ average of 64 bushels an acre. But 
there has been a decrease in the wheat area since 1884-5, when 
1,942,453 acres were grown, or 207,000 more than in 1893-4 ; 
and it is generally admitted in Australian papers that the 
industry is not now remunerative. In India, in spite of a 
great currency bonus, the wheat area is less than it was nine 
years ago ; and in Canada, notwithstanding the increase in 
Manitoba, the advantages and disadvantages of which have 
already been mentioned, the advance does not keep pace with 
the population. Let us turn, then, to the country which is the 
latest favourite as a wheat producer. 
Agricultural statistics in the Argentine Republic are compi- 
lations of the roughest of rough guesses. There is no doubt, 
however, that the wheat area has greatly increased in recent 
years, while favourable harvests have raised Argentina to the 
third position among the wheat-exporting countries of the world, 
