The morning call., 1891-08-31
THE FOOD QUESTION.

Inc DeSt authorizes IN Europe now nGure
that the wheat deficiency on that continent
will amount to 800. 000 600 bushels instead of
$50, ,0O0. GOO bushels; and the increase in their
estimate derives confirmation from the re-
ported determination OF the German Gov
'ernment to suspend the wheat duties. and
from the epidemic of strikes in Paris.
which has followed the advance in the price
of food. 1t is evidently going to be serious
business to feed the continental nations
until the crop of 1892 has been harvested.
They will need every pound Of wheat that
can be got.
Happily the news of their increased neces-
stiles is coupled with news of our increased
capacity TO supply their wants. Unless the
frost of last Friday has seriously reduced
the crop OF Dakota. the United States will
harvest nearly $50 Geo, coo bushels of wheat
this fall, and will have something like
900, eco bushels available for export. In
tn is State, the crop promises to come quite
up to the highest estimates; and in the cen
trail valleys, unless there Is a great deal OF
misrepresentation afioat, the estimates are
going to fall far below the reality. 1t is Ell
tirely immaterial to us whether Germany
suspends her duties or not. If the landed
proprie;ors prevent the suspension, the
working and middle class will have to pay
the more for their bread. That is their
affair. So if the French continue to levy
their duties on foreign -four, the strikes
which are disturbing industry in Paris will
spread to ether cities, and may assume
political significance; but that again con-
Germs NJ. Carnot, NJ. Freycinet and their
colleagues. We shall 90 on feeding the
hungry all the same.
1t is not surprising that the situation
should be suggesting radical notions to the
minds OF advanced thinkers. There are in
round figures 1S0, 10000 people in Central
Europe, who depend in greater or less de-
gree on foreign nations for the food on
which they live. When France has a good
harvest she eau Just about feed her people.
But with that exception. no European ma
tion except Russia grows grain enough to
do so. If Central Europe were cut off from
the food supply il gets from Russia, India
and the United States, a famine would re-
suit. Yet with that fIightful possibility
staring them in the face. these European
nations are spend ing their substance and
Strainipg their credit in the maintenance of
armies and navies which cost, all told,
something like $1,000, 100000 year. twas
lately figured by a statistician that If the
European armies had been reduced one-half
in 1885, the nations would have saved
vast amount of treasure, and would have
gained the product of the labor of three
millions of men. If they had done so, they
would not have been beholden to foreigners
for their food. The average yield per acre
of wheat land is not over nine bushels in
Russia and twelve bushels in Germany;
but with high agriculture, which could
have been attained by larger supply of
labor, the same land might have been made
to yield twenty-five bushels.
The thing works in circle. What we
are Witnessing is the last stage OF the con-
tiict between the political systems of the
past and the political system of the present
day. Germany -snatches two provinces from
France in defiance of the wishes of their
inhabitants, because in olden times victory
in war was always followed by conquest.
This necessitates an expenditure which in
wolves grinding taxation and Il perpetual
menace of revolutionary outbreaks, and
simultaneously withdraws from agriculture
the labor which it needs to make it fruitful.
1t seems long way from the German flag
floating over Strasburg to the price OF wheat
at Liverpool. But the latter in some degree
flows from the former as an outbreak Of
diphtheria often flows from uncleansed sew
y
the British Channel. is light and not partic-
ularly suited for the growth of wheat. But
it has chanced that the Guernsey farmers
have paid particular attention to the eulti-
walton of the plant. Deep soil blowing is
universal and every pound Of refuse is util-
lied for manure. There is plenty of labor,
and it is intelligent labor. The consequence
is that, while the average yield of wheat
land in Normandy close by is not over if
teen bushels per acre, and in England about
twenty-six bushels, the yield of the wheat
fields of Guernsey is never under thirty
bushels, and often reaches forty or forty-fye
bushels. Ii these great European nations
paid as much attention to their wheat fields
as they do 10 their armies and navies their
crops might be as bountiful as those of the
little channelisland. But intelligence moves
slowly. 1t is perhaps sign of progress
that member of the German Bundesrath
should lately have introduced a bill for the
retrocession of Alsace and Lorraine to
France in consideration of a perpetual alli-
ance.