The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1892-01-23
The Food Products OF the United States
becoming Insufficient for Our People.

The Food Products OF the United States
, Becoming insufficient for Our People.
1t Is most significant and important fact
that. notwithstanding our great exporta-
tion OF grain In 1892. there has been OF
recent years grent shrinkage In the vol
umo. and still greater shrinkage In the
value. Of our food products cont to foreign
countries. For instance. the volume Of
wheat exported in the form OF grain and
-four during the Ave years ending with
1885. was "a per cent. greater than during
the five years ending with $780, moreover
tho mean export price Of tho wheat sent
abroad from 1880 to 1894 inclusive was
Sl.15. as against SO cents for tho next five
years. the mean price in the former period
being 90 per cent. greater than in the latter.
Applying these prices to tho aggregate
shipments for the two periods. 1t Is found
thnt the TOO. 900 bushels exported from
1880 to 1885 brought the American people
some 1901. ZOO. 900, or SO per cent. more than
was realized from tho 5G6.O27.OO0 bushels
during the five years ending with 1890.
That. aside from cotton. the expectation
Of our agricultural products us n whole. OK
Guiding the abnormal wheat crop OF 1891. Is
steadily and rapidly diminishing instead Of
showing TINT steady and rapid increase
which is popularity believed to be- in progress.
Is proved readily by abundant data. aside
from Custom House returns. In other
words, our power to export wheat and flour
Is diminishing steadily and rapidly, such
dlminution being duo to the fact that cur
rent additions to the cultivated acreage
have for more than five years failed to equal
the additional amount required for the reg
ular increase Of the population.
From official statistics showing the pro-
duction and expectation OF the primary
ssod staples, 1t appears that from 1880 to
1890 each unit Of our population has re-
quired. for purely domestic consumption.
the product OF 2.96 acres devoted to the pro-
duction OF the great primary food. forage.
and fibre staples. In 1880. with & popula-
ton OF 5O.2OO0OO. we required in such sta
pies, for home use. a cultivated area Of
148,6O0.00O acres. while the acres then SO
employed numbered 1875. 900 900. showing that
we were able then to export OF such staples.
either In primary or secondary form. the
product OF some 16.40O.0OO acres. Five
years later the population had increased to
s.. 900. requiring for home use at the as
certnined rate per CAPITA the product Of
164.872.0O0 acres devoted to tho growth
Of the great farm staples. while the area
then under such crops aggregated 197.-
600. 900 acres. the eSportable surplus having
now risen so as to absorb tho product of
something more than 32,OOO.0OO acres, OF
which about 1l.OOO. 900 acres was represented
by cotton and tho remainder. 2l,OOO.OOO
acres. by food staples either in the original
or secondary form.
The year 1885 marks distinctly an epoch
In our economic history. Then the tide OF
our exports had risen to the highest flood,
as had the per capita quota Of land in culti-
walton. as we'll rs the production Of food.
relatively to population: then we ceased to
make enormous yearly additions to the
cultivated area in excess Of the yearly aug
mentation OF our domestic requirements.
the immediate result being that in 1880. with
q population Of 625O0O each requiring
the product in food. forage and fibre. OF 1856
acres. the aggregate of such domestic re-
Quirements absorbing the produce OF 1885,
O0O.00 acres. tho area then in such staples
reached total Of 2ll.00O.000 acres. permit
ting the expectation Of the crops from &C.
100000. OF which the cotton export repre-
sented some IL .5O0.OoO. and food products but
Is. 5O0,OOO. or 65OO.0OO acres less than five
years earlier. This elbows diminution of
exports III five years OF 10 per cent in the
total acreage devoted to the growth OF
staples for export. and diminution. In tho
same period. Of Sc per cent. in the acres de-
voted to tho production OF food for the
foreigner.
This steady and startlingly rapid diml-
mutton OF the power to export food is due
wholly to tho diverse rates at which
population and cultivated acres increase,
and to the fact that while population in
creases n little less rapidly. probably. than
during earlier periods. tho additions to
tho cultivated acreage have decreased so
rapidly since 1885 that the annual addi-
tiOns are now less than half tho area
required to sustain the years addition to
the population; and SO rapidly is the d.
vcrGepce between the domestic power to
consume and the power to produce WIDEN
ing. as measured by cultivated acres, that
1t seems wholly probabl, that the day Is not
far distant when domestic consumption will
have quite ovnrtakeu production. There
can be II" doubt, should cultivated acres
Increase no E;"re rapidly than of late years,
that tile plethoric abundance which per-
lnlts the expectation CT vast quantities OF
food will have become IA thing of the past.
Adding cnIually. AS We are. some $780,
000 to our population. 1t Is necessary, in cr-
der to nalntain tho present standard OF liv-
ing. that We should add about 4. 500. 900 acres
yearly TO ths fields producing grain. hay.
potatoes. and cotton for domestic consump-
ton; yet tho reports Of the Agricultural
Department show that such additions. ten
years ago averaging more than 100000
acres per Year. have in later years fallen to
legs than 2,O00.O0O acres. and that very
much of even these insufficient additions
has been absorbed by meadows and cotton
fields. Gotten fields added liz tho Southern |
nnd meadows in the Eastern and Central |
States have reduced the grain fields In |
such regions nearly as much as such fields
have increased in tho newer States. The
inevitable result is that we are now yearly
absorbing by domestic consumption the
product OF from two to three million acres
tlut heretofore has gone to swell the vol
uiae OF exports: aud knowing that such is
the rate at which ths eXportabs surplus is
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