This country imports, on the average, a million tons of
wheat every year from India, and expects to import more. With this wheat is mixed a proportion of dirt so great that we, in fact, buy 3,000,000 cwt. of earth from India at the price of corn. One reason of that import is that all corn from India is bought under contracts specifying that it shall be of "fair average quality," and as "fair average quality" was taken to imply 5 per cent. of dirt, the sellers never took the trouble to make the wheat cleaner. Indeed, it is suspected that when they have clean wheat, they mix dirt with it, so as to obtain the advantage of more weight without any loss for quality. Lord Cross thought this system absurd, and called on the trade to help him in altering it. Not a bit of it. Liverpool would like cleaner wheat, because its customers complain of the cost of paying 14s. a ton for the railway carriage of dirt ; but London cares nothing about the matter, the dealers unanimously objecting to any Government inter- ference. Lord Cross, therefore, who held a conference at the India Office on the subject on Thursday, was left planted there, much amazed, quite powerless, and a little inclined to declare that he did not mean anything, he was sure. There are comedies even in commerce.
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