PREFACE. WHATEVER may be the criticisms on this book, it cannot justly be said that the work was begun hurriedly or without an attempt, at least, at preparation and an understanding of the subject. It is now eight years since the thought developed into a fixed determination sometime to write a book on wheat. During the intervening time the author has been constantly in touch with the markets, and therefore with crop conditions, and has in addition taken advantage of certain opportunities-and made othersto travel in the Western wheat states and in the Canadian West when the crops were growing, to learn from observation what can be learned in no other way. In 1906 he visited all the important grain exchanges in Europe and traveled through all the wheat-growing countries, with the purpose of finally putting the material gathered into book form. But for unforeseen circumstances this would have been done a year earlier. However, the year 1907 was such an eventful one in the world's wheat supplyand-demand situation and in the markets, that this work should be of more value, as a record at least, for the delay. Whether "Wheat Fields and Markets of the |