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matter basis, a plan recently adopted in Roumania. Experience in other countries has shown that if such efforts were successful, the most important result would be the transportation of that much more rubbish from Russia to England.

INDIA. An immense stimulus was given to wheat cultivation in India by the development of transportation facilities. The first of these was the completion of the Suez canal in 1869. This, however, reached its greatest importance only after some railroads were built into the wheat districts. In the eighties the movement of wheat was still greatly hampered, not only by high railroad rates, but by the entire lack of railroads in many of the best wheat districts. The situation had not greatly improved yet in 1898, when there were few branches to the railroads, the country roads were poor and freights were high. The traveler still saw the long lines of camels that were silently and majestically treading their way through the night across the plains to the seaports, in successful competition with the railroads as grain carriers. After threshing, the grain is left lying on the ground, or it is buried in pits. In the latter case, it suffers less from destructive insects than if placed in granaries. Cartmen haul it to market. Ninety per cent of them do not haul their own grain, but engage in a speculative business of buying and selling. In the eighties, there was much fraud practiced by these cartmen in handling wheat. Dirt was mixed freely with the grain. The ingenuity and resourcefulness of the cartmen seems almost incredible. In 1889 McDougall wrote: "There are 10 or 11 villages in which the lower classes make it a trade to supply different colored earths to suit the color and size of the different kinds of grain. The earth is worked into small grains to look like grain, and the traders say it is impossible to winnow out this description of dirt. Water, again, is put in to increase the weight. All these practices are resorted to by the conveying traders in self-protection against the tricks of traders, who rob them in various ways.' A poor quality of wheat was also mixed with a good one, and then the whole was given a uniform color by mixing with clay. Firms engaged openly in selling this clay. As a result of all these manipulations, the wheat did not arrive at the foreign

1 Jour. of Soc Art., 37:644.

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market in as prime condition as might have been wished. It could not be shipped to Germany, and the English buyer deducted 5 per cent "refraction." The Indian exporter soon learned to exercise care lest any wheat containing less than 5 per cent dirt should be shipped to England. He was sometimes forced to mix 2 to 3 per cent of foreign matter with the wheat in order not to sustain a loss. This caused an economic loss, not only in annually transporting 15,000 to 20,000 tons of trash to England, but the English miller was obliged to devise machinery to clean this wheat. These evils were partially remedied in the nineties. In 1898, 15 grades of wheat were shipped to England from India. In good years, the storage capacity of Bombay is exhausted by the wheat brought from the central provinces of India. The wheat of the Punjab is collected at Multan and shipped from Karachi. Considerable wheat flour is ground and exported at Bombay and other centers.

ARGENTINA. The Argentine wheat grower has no granaries on his farm, and consequently his entire crop is marketed as soon after harvest as possible. Lack of improved facilities and methods are a source of great loss. The grain is handled in bags, which are very expensive and which are of such poor quality that there is quite a loss from leakage. The country roads are very poor. The wheat is hauled in immense two or four-wheeled wagons having wheels 8 feet in diameter. The two-wheelers are hauled by 12 to 15 horses or mules, or by 8 to 16 bullocks. One animal is fastened between the huge thills, and the others are hooked on by means of ropes tied to any portion of the cart to which a rope can be fastened. The yoke of the oxen is fastened to their horns, and the driver's seat is on the yoke between the heads of two oxen. The fourwheelers carry from 4 to 6 tons, and require more animals to draw them. The hauling is not generally done by the producers of wheat, but by men who make a business of hauling. The grain is hauled from 15 to 60 miles. Corrugated iron warehouses have been built at some of the principal wheat stations, but they are used only by the large producers and dealers. As a rule, warehouses are not available for the small farmer, nor would he store his grain if they were. He is so ignorant that he prefers to pile his wheat outdoors exposed to the weather.

Such grain is often damaged by rains, and these conditions prevail at the farm, at the railway station and at the seaport. Sometimes the piles of sacks are covered, and this greatly reduces the damage.

Transportation to the seaports is almost exclusively by rail. Of the 26 Argentine railways in operation in 1903, 22 were built mainly in order to transport wheat. The Parana is navigable to Rosaria, the only large inland city. From this point at least 5 railroads branch out into the wheat regions. The car facilities are inadequate to ship the wheat, and the bags often lie in the yards 2 months awaiting shipment. The grain is frequently shipped in open flat cars covered with canvas, but it sometimes gets wet before it is unloaded. The railways are all English, and consequently most of the cars are of the old English type. They have a capacity of from 10 to 18 tons, but the many new cars being built have a capacity of from 30 to 40 tons. The freight rates vary from 5 to 15 cents per bushel. They fell about 3 cents per bushel from 1895 to 1902. There are portions of Argentina where wheat cannot be raised for export merely because transportation facilities are lacking.

Although shipping facilities at the seaports are growing rapidly they are still entirely inadequate. Ships wait for days before they can be loaded. Then, berthed three deep in the port, it takes several days more to load, especially when men carry the bags of wheat, one at a time. Two other methods of loading are also in use. Steam winches lift the bags, or an endless belt carries them. Tramp steamers of 2,500 to 6,000 tons register usually do the ocean transportation. The rate to Europe in 1903 was from 6 to 12 cents per bushel. The grain exporters keep branch establishments at the main points where wheat is raised. They buy through an agent. A price is telegraphed to him in the morning, and this he pays all day, as he rides from farm to farm. He often buys from the machine, for the exporter gets his wheat on board ship as soon as possible. Each buyer does his own inspecting and grading. The agent is paid 1 per cent commission on all he buys.

CANADA. In the marketing of wheat, as in nearly all other phases of the wheat industry, the development in Canada has been similar to that in the United States, only later. More

than half the arable lands of Canada cannot be utilized yet because the requisite population and means of transportation are wanting. Some of these lands are among the best wheat lands in the world. The railroads are, however, rapidly ramifying through these regions. New trans-continental lines are being planned and built. As transportation facilities improve and population increases, the development of Canada will be unprecedented. Elevator building is at present very active in the Canadian northwest, both along the new lines of road and along the old lines. As far as the wheat trade is concerned, Winnipeg is the Chicago and Montreal the New York of Canada. The most noteworthy difference between Canada and the United States in connection with the marketing of wheat is in grading. Grading is entirely under the control of the Dominion government, which appoints the grain inspectors in the different markets. Uniform grades are fixed by law for the whole country.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE PRICE OF WHEAT1

The Factors of Price. The price of wheat is normally determined by the world conditions of supply and demand which pertain to bread stuffs. The control exercised over price by these conditions is immediate and transient. Direct variations in price result from variations in supply or demand. Price in turn causes supply and demand to vary by reacting upon them. Such variations are, comparatively speaking, of slower action and more permanent. Legislation may also become a determining factor of price in certain countries, as, for example, when import duties on grain are established.

Supply and Demand.-Wheat and rye are the world's principal breadstuffs. There is sufficient variation in supply and demand to cause great fluctuations in price. Many causes of variation in the supply of breadstuffs exist, among which may be mentioned: (1) The great changes in climate and in abundance of rainfall to which the natural wheat and rye regions are subject; (2) the variations in acreage which result as a reaction to variations in price; (3) the increase in acreage resulting from the settlement of new countries; (4) the decrease in acreage due to planting a larger acreage of other cereals, especially corn, when there is an unusual demand for live stock feed; (5) the degree of competition, which may affect the supply at a given time or place; (6) the establishment or abolition of trade restraints by commercial treaties; (7) the hindering of transportation by war; and (8) the continuous advance of the arts of production, communication and transportation. In Europe, the average annual production of rye is approximately as great as that of wheat, while the European production of both crops taken collectively averages about 70 per cent of that of the entire world. When wheat is relatively high in price, and rye is relatively low, consumption of the latter grain increases and the demand for the former decreases.

1 For criticism and many valuable suggestions on this chapter the writer is indebted to Prof. H. C. Emery and Dr. J. Pease Norton.

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