merce in its latest circular has shown Manchurian wheat successfully competing in price with the American product, and that after the cost of transport, duties and other charges had been met. The circumstance is of importance, and suggests consideration of the future of China's vast stretches of country not as yet densely peopled. Leaving aside, in dealing with this matter, the need for providing adequate food for the populace—at present a serious matter indeed—we may refer to an interesting remark made by a former Chinese official in Tibet. He referred to the reputed mineral wealth of that country, and pointed out that it would probably be unprofitable to work these minerals because of the difficulties of transportation. On the other hand he believed that the future of the country lay in the scope it offered as a grazing ground for innumerable herds of cattle, as the great beef-producing centre of the world. His belief was that more and more would the population of America encroach upon the feeding grounds there, ultimately reducing them to small pastures, and then carnivorous mankind would set out in earnest to "find new fields" for the rearing of its beeves, and Tibet would come into her own. In one sense the prospect is alluring—all but the thought of Lhasa as a new Chicago.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.