Note 65 — Chapter III · THE POSSIBILITIES OF AGRICULTURE.

The data for the calculation of the cost of production of wheat in this country are those given by the Mark Lane Express; they will be found in a digestible form in an article on wheat-growing in the Quarterly Review for April, 1887, and in W. E. Bear’s book, The British Farmer and his Competitors, London (Cassell), 1888. Although they are a little above the average, the crop taken for the calculations is also above the average. A similar inquiry has been made on a large scale by the Russian Provincial Assemblies, and the whole was summed up in an elaborate paper, in the Vyestnik Promyshlennosti, No. 49, 1887. To compare the paper kopecks with pence I took the rouble at 63/100 of its nominal value: such was its average quotation during the year 1886. I took 475 English lb. in the quarter of wheat.