The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-10-03
THE wORLD's WHEAT SUPPLY.


Plato Aristotle Benjamin Franklin,
Hume. Nautilus and other philosophers in
their day gave themselves no little concern
with regard 10 where the earths popula-
ton would get something to eat after the
lapse Of comparatively short period of
time. Twenty years OF so ago Prof.
Davis, in an article Of much thought pub
lished in the Forum. reached the conclu-
sion that at that time the United States
had about reached their capacity IN wheat
production, and that by the year 1895 they
would be under the necessity of importing
wheat for their own consumption never
the.ess the United States are at present
annually exporting an average Of some
1i5. 001,0 900 bushels of wheat one of the
latest scientists 10 take up this old theory
OF insuficiency of food supply is Sir Will
ian Crookes. of the British Association
for the Advancement of Science. During
a recent speech at Bristol he dealt learn
eddy with The question of wheat supply
His calculations were very precise and al
together scientific. The conclusions reach
ed by him was that by 1881 the world
would be on the verge of starvation for
want Of bread, unless artificial means of
supplying wheat deficiencies were invent
ed and applied.
One Of the chief points Of Sir Williams
argument was this: That the United
States have no longer any virgin prairie
or public lands to add TO their wheat fields,
and that. therefore, no increase in the
production can be made except by reduc-
ing the acreages of corn, hay or other nee
essary crops.
1t will be seen at once that the argument
is based upon false premises. The assump-
ton is that all of the arabic lands of the
United States, and certainly those which
are suited to the production of wheat, are
already under cultivation. And that is
very far from being correct There are,
as a matter of fact, millions of acres
available for wheat growing that have
never yet produced a crop of any kind,
and other millions of. acres that could be
devoted to wheat without seriously inter
fering with necessary crops" of other
sorts. The possibilities of wheat produc-
ton in the West and the Southwest are
far from being fully developed In Texas,
for instance. the tracts of land that were
a few years ago immense cattle ranches
are now being cut into smaller areas, and
many Of these are being planted in wheat.
The number of these small farms is con-
stantly increasing, with the result that
the wheat output is steadily growing.
Notwithstanding the fact that compare
lively little wheat has been grown in the
Southern states during the past thirty
years, there are some fine wheat lands in
this section. There are tens of thousands
of acres of such land in the state of Geor-
gia, and in Tennessee and the Caroinas
and In Alabama Before the civil war
Large quantities of wheat were produced
in these states and at the present time
there is a movement among farmers look
ing to a gradual return to growing wheat
for their own use, and possibly for mar
ket also
1t Is probably not wide of the truth to
say that the United States could come
pretty near to doubling their wheat output
In five years, II there were a demand for
the grain sufficiently strong to send the
price up to $3.50 or better per bushel and
maintain Il there. At all events, there
need not be any fear that we are within
thirty-twO years Of the limit of our capac-
ity as a bread raising nation. Sir William
Crookes has been misinformed with regard
to the resources of the United States.