WHEAT

nature of the plant, it is top-heavy by the time that it is ripe. In the first place, then, its roots need to be in a fairly stiff soil, and it can be easily injured by a wet wind. As a gra , however, it needs a considerable amount of moisture and abundance of sunlight and the nece ary tillage can be conducted , ; properly only In the absence of mountains or of rocky soil. Consequently, it grows best on a warm, dry plain which has a soil stiff enough to support the plant and to retain moisture. All extremes of climate are therefore unsuitable; and within suitable latitudes the best place is a plain far enough from the sea to be dry, but with enough vegetable matter in the soil to retain moisture; and amongst such plains the. preference must be given to the one which has the richest soil and the easiest acce . once to the great European plain, the prairies of North America, the pampas ot South America, and the plains which stretch north and south of the huge watershed of Central Asia. And the question of water for irrigation or transport draws special attention to the Volga, the Danube, the St Lawrence, the Mi i ippi, the Plate, the Indus, and the Obi. the largest surplus for export, and the different latitudes with their different times of harvest ought to le en competition. The Argentine harvest is in January, the Canadian in September, the Austrian in July, and the Siberian in October. with the scientific tillage which it receives in Britain and Denmark but these great river-plains offer the largest supplies; for export at the least cost. Denmark produces 42 bushels to the acre, while Ru ia and India only produce 9 apiece; but it cannot compete with either of the latter as an exporter. regions are North America, South Ru ia, ana Western India. The Hungarian plain is comparatively small, and Siberia and the Argentine have scarcely come into the field yet as serious competitors.