INDIAN WHEAT.

Waikato Times, Volume xxx, Issue 2424, 24 January 1888, Page 2

INDIAN WHEAT.

FitOJt our English files we have noticed lately a good deal of attention given to the subject of wheat cultivation in India, many articles, especially those in the Field and North British Agriculturist being very interesting and instructive. Wa take the following gleanings from an article in a recent issue of the former journal, want of space precluding us from republishing it in full. The seed is sown both broadcast and in lines ; for the latter a rude but inexpensive drill is used. It consists of three hollow bamboo canes, about 4ft. in length, fixed at the upper end in a wooden cup of a capacity of two or three quarts. The seed is placed in the cup and passes through one or more of the bamboo tubes to the soil. The machine is drawn by oxen guided by a man, another follows behind and puts the seed in the cup in handfuls according to the quantity required to be sown. It appears that drill sowing was practised in India long before it was known in Europe, as the machine referred to is of great antiquity. It is common amongst the Indian ryots to grow mixed crops, that is to mix other kinds of corn with his wheat, such as barley, pulse, &c. ; and although the authorities have over and over again pointed out the serious depreciation in value the wheat undergoes, the ryots still persist in the practice. In many parts of northern India tho people prefer flour made of wheat and pulse mixed. The almost universal practice in India is to harvest crops in an over-ripe condition ; threshing is not then so difficult, and can be done sooner after harvesting, particularly as the crops are not stacked as in this country. Harvesting takes place about five months after sowing. Wheat is cut with a bent knife with a cutting ■ edge of about Gin- or Tin., and an acre yielding about oOOlbs of grain will employ six or eight men for a whole day in cutting and tieing into sheaves. Threshing is done by either striking the sheaf at the ear end on a block, or by treading the grain out with cattle. Much dirt gets mixed with the grain by this method, which is only imperfectly removed by the rude winnowing to which it is afterwards subjected. European threshing and winnowing machines have been used in the Bombay Presidency, with very satisfactory results. In some trials it was proved beyond a doubt that such machinery could thresh and clean wheat at less than half the cost of the methods usually adopted by ryots, and in a much superior manner. But the ryots objected to tho employment of the machinery on the ground that tho straw, after passing through it, was not broken and orushed, as it is when tho treading process is followed, and that their cattle would object to eat the straw passed through the English machines. The grain required to repay the local bazaar man for the grain, he probably advanced to the ryot for sowing tho crop and for feeding his family during the few months before harvest, is at once paid back, and that to be sold in order to obtain money fertile rent and otherpurposes for which money 1 is .necessary is disposed of. The remainder is usually stored in pits or in large earthenware pits for feeding the family or bartering away. It is no unusual practice to keep grain in capital condition for a year or more in these underground pits, which are made as air-tight as pos- ■ sible, and sunk in a dry place where subsoil water is not likely to be met with. i The grain oxported is collected by native corn-dealers either on behalf of European firms, or on their own account. It has been 1 the general belief that India, as a wheat- ; supplier to the English markets, was a formidable competitor against whom it was almost hopeless for the Australian colonies and New Zealand to contend. Notwithstanding the low rates of wages amongst the agricultural classes in that vast country aud tho inexpensive system of tillage, there are evidently a variety of intermediate causes operating on the tran- ' sit of the grain from the grower to the ex- ' porter which seriously affect the pricos. Our readers may desire to know at what cost Indian wheat can be delivered in this i country. Such information is, however, difficult to give, except in a very general i way. Many estimates have at different i times been prepared, but they differ so widely as to possess but little practical value. We can, however, state most posi* 1 tively that it does not pay the Indian ryot 3 to send his wheat to Europe at the present 1 prices ; indeed, the Government of India " have published estimates showing thnt Indian wheat should sell for at the least 10s per quarter in England to repay the I transport charges and post of production in India. In an ordinary year the average i price of wheat in the more important wheat centres in India is 2Rs. per maund of 821b, • or about 17s per quarter at the present rate of exchango. Assuming that the wheat | must be conveyed eight hundred miles per rail to one of the ports, and that it has to be conveyed twenty-five miles by road to ' the railway, and including the cost of col- ' lecting the grain, tho Indian transport charges cannot be estimated at less than 10s per quarter. The freight on wheat from ! India has fallen ,f )0 per cent, in the last ten 5 years, but even at the present low rates the - cost of shipping, freight, insurance, &c., and 3 the cost of discharging the grain, and warc- ' housing it in England, cannot be esti--1 mated at less than 8s per quarter, thus bringin? the cost of the wheat delivered in > England to 35s per quarter, making no allowance for the profits of tho various perr i sons through whose hands the grain passes - in its way from the grower in India, to tho , miller, at Home, for which at the j least 5s per quarter must be added. ; Indian wheat possesses characteristics • the opposite of those of ordinary English wheat; it is therofore in good demand for ■ mixing with our home-grown wheats. Tho . finer samples of Indian soft white wheats ; yield 10 to 12 per cent, more flour, and the . flour makes a greater out-turn of bread than I our wheats ; hence such wheat stands high ; in the favour of both the miller and baker. 1 It has, ljowever, been conclusively shown that in phosphoric acid Indian wheat is very deficient. Broad made of Indian f wheat is, therefore, not so suitable for 3 young people as broad made of home--1 grown wheat. This is a matter of great ' importance in the families of tho working 3 classes, whose diet consists so largely of - broad. 1 While it is probable—says the Field — that we may in some years receive large supplies of wheat from India, we are ■ decidedly of opinion that wo are never ' likely to get much larger supplies than we , have received during tho past few years, i while the probabilities are in favour of a r greatly diminished trade. The United i States and our colonies, with their vast areas of virgin soils, great resources, and i comparatively small popnlati ■in', are much more likely than India to compete largely . iij supplying the wheat our peopje need. J I i • i