Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-09-21

of supplying the required electrical en-
| ergy without much lessening of its mighty
now for the regeneration of the worlds
| wheat lands. is highly interesting But
his picture of the speedy exhaustion of the
worlds supply of wheat without such re-
lief is sufficiently gloomy and inaccurate
to be worthy of the kansas writer who
semi-occasionally discharges msinforma-
ton on the subject.
Sir William Crooke says that the bread
eaters of the world number Ole, SOC, 600, and
If each is to have his proper ration 2,324-
100000 bushels will be required for seed
and food. One may pause to remark that
| nobody knows how many bread eaters
there are, or is the number anywhere
near the same from year to year. nor does
anybody know how much their average
consumption is within 10u,ooUuOO bushels
in any year. Any man processing to know
VIII bemire himself at once in trying TO
make SueSseS by traders in various coun-
tries serve in place of facts. When the
United States government does not know
the yield and OF necessity the consump
ton Of wheat in this country within loo.-
oO0OOO bushels yearly. where does Sir
William Crooke get his knowledge of this
and all other countries? He further ad
mits that since 1883 we have had seven
world crops of wheat and six of rye abun-
dainty in excess of the average" which
would lead any statistician to ask how
much the average" has changed through
improved culture, and how much other
grain, and especially corn would be used
in place of wheat were diminished wheat
supplies to raise its price compared with
the prices CT other grain.
The assertion that this country has
been producing no less than 145.ooo,ooo
bushels for export within three months
after it has finished exporting more than
220, 100000 bushels from one crop is a mark
of the looseness pervading the whole state
ment. That popularity becomes fatally
important when the instructor asks us to
believe that practically there remains no
uncutivated prairie land in the United
States suitable for wheat growing. :.
1t is almost certain that within genera
ton the ever-ncreasing population of the
United States will consume all the wheat
grown within its borders and will be driven
to Import Several men have made them
selves conspicuous in this country, but not
distinguished, by repeating similar asser
tons The practical men here, well
as the really scientific, know that they
are far from the truth. Nobody can be-
gin to estimate what quantity of wheat
be grown in Washington and Oregon,
or Oh lands not yet occupied in the Da-
kotas and Minnesota, nor is the wheat
growing capacity of either of the four
great states south of these-Nebraska,
Kansas. Iowa and Missouri-known to any
body even approximately known. Nor
is this all. Vast tracts of land have
ceased to produce wheat in states east of
the Mississippi, not at al because the
land has been exhausted. but because OF
the extreme cheaDness of production in
the vast region further westward recently
opened by many railroads. With very
moderate rise in price no one can say what
quantity such lands might also produce.
All these speculations go on the assump-
ton that land which has not been used for
wheat growing, not in recent years, be-
cause 1t was too distant from railway
stations, can never be so used The cost
of carting wheat from the farms to the
station is always the first and most potent
limitation of its production. The cattle
ard hogs grown on the same land can
transport themselves to the station on
their own legs. The corn which can be
raised on such more distant lard can pres
entity be transmitted into cattle and hogs.
1t is all the time a question of price, and
the addition of over 12,OO0 miles of rail-
road in seven northwestern states alone
within few years brought into the area
of profitable wheat growing millions of
acres whose products have for the time
depressed prices for the world. But it
is mere trifling to say that the lines of
transportation have yet been so developed,
either in the far western OF in the older
states, that the wheat-producing area has
been exhausted.