_Wheat._--Within recent years wheat has become one of the most
important crops in India, more especially for export. The canal
colonies of the Punjab have turned northern India into one of the
great grain-fields of the British empire; and in 1904 India took the
first place in supplying wheat to the United Kingdom, sending nearly
25½ million cwts. out of a total of 97¾ millions. In 1905, however, it
fell back again into the third place, being passed by Russia and
Argentina. Wheat is grown chiefly in the Punjab, the United Provinces,
and the Central Provinces. In 1905-1906 there were 23 million acres
under wheat in the whole of India, of which 8½ million were in the
Punjab alone.
_Rice._--The name of rice has from time immemorial been so closely
associated with Indian agriculture that it is difficult to realize how
comparatively small an area is planted with this crop. With the
exception of the deltas of the great rivers and the long strip of land
fringing the western coast, rice may be called an occasional crop
throughout the remainder of the peninsula. But where it is grown it is
grown to the exclusion of all other crops. The rice crop is most
important in Burma, Bengal and Madras, and there is an average of 20
million acres under rice in the other provinces of British India. In
Bengal the area varies from 36 to 40 million acres according to the
season. In Burma, where the large waste area is being gradually
brought under cultivation, there has been an almost uninterrupted
increase in the area of the rice crop, and the rice export is one of
the main industries of the province. In ordinary years most of this
rice goes either to Europe or to the Farther East; but in famine
seasons a large part is diverted to peninsular India, and Burma is the
most important of the outside sources from which the deficient crops
are supplemented. In 1905-1906 the export of rice from India was
valued at 12½ millions sterling.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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