The effect of high prices in revealing new sources of
supply for any article of prime necessity has this year received a new illus- tration. We have, according to the Times, imported in one quarter 1,241;382 cwts. of wheat from Egypt, or two-thirds of our import from the United States. Nevertheless, a failure of the harvest in both those countries and Hungary besides would not starve England, or raise prices to any unendurable figure, for at 70s. per quarter India could supply our whole demand without much feeling the loss. It is calculated that there are often 10,000,000 qrs. of fine wheat rotting in the Punjab alone for want of demand, utterly useless except to feed hogs, which the prejudices of the people forbid them to breed. If science ever succeeds in banishing the weevil from wheat ships and preserving mutton for six months, the English people may yet be fed to the throat on flesh and flour at less than the cost of their present insufficient food.
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