Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1900-02-03
CEREAL EXPORTS.
Statistics Of the Way This Country
Feeds the World.


Statistics Of the Way This Country
Feeds the World.
The importance of the American
farmer is not revealed in its fullest
extent until his relation to the worlds
food supply is considered That rela-
ton it may be stated Is q very init
mate one. as men or all nations would
attest IL the farmer should suddenly
decide to go out Of business and live
Oh. the gains OF the past two years.
Then the old adage Half a loaf is
better than nome" might find a more
literal Interpretation than in this we'll
fed age.
One cannot travel through the big
wheat farms of the northwest without
being wonderfully impressed with
their show Of industry and enterprise.
They give the farmer his most favor
able background. But it is necessary
to resort to dull statistics to know the
part played by the agriculturists OF
the United States in guarding the
world from perpetual hunger, to say
nothing of the American cattlemen.
To begin at once on Facts. the Amer
lean farmer is responsible for annual
exports aggregating in value 100000.
900 for cereal alone. This, be it re-
membered, is after catering to very
heavy home demand. The largest sin
gle item is furnish by wheat. Corn,
cornmeal and -four contribute the 9TH
er parts. Last fiscal year was a rec
ord one for -four, when 1S.4S5, 500 bar.
rels were shipped. The number of
bushels of wheat was 139, 432,8 15. In
he 4H nh
100000 bushels, which is the greatest
total of which any account is to be
had. During 1898 the exports of
corn amounted to 20S,744, 900, which
was the record in that cereal up To
that time.
II one wishes to show the stupendous
results of agrarian labor one shonld
turn to the figures given in the last
annual report of the New York Pro-
duce Exchange, which contains export
figures since 1881, when records were
first available. Since that year the
value of the cereals sent abroad from
the United States has footed up to
over six billions of dollars. This
means that something like 1890 0e0,-
0O0 bushels Of corn and wheat have
been sent out of the country to supply
European nations.
There has been a gradual develop
ment in these sixty-eight years. with
several periods of veyy rapid expan-
sion. For instance. in the five years
ending with September, 1885. the
amount of wheat exported was only
614,145 bushels. The output of -four
in that interval was 5.241, 1854 barrels.
By 1865 the wheat exports had risen
TO total of 13S, 100000 bushels; ten
years later they were 224.019,316
bushels. doubling in the fiveyear per.
iod following.
The best prices that the farmer has
received for his wheat came between
1865 and 1870, when he averaged on
the five years $1.43 a bushel. The
average between 1890 and 1895 was
SO cents. In 1895 he only received
65 cents for what wheat he SEM
abroad. and shipped out 40,00c,000
bushels, less than one-third of last
years export total.
An interesting study from the fig
ures given in the report has been
made of the proportion of wheat
shipped as flour to the total since
1881. In that year 1t reached 97.2 per
cent The ratio fell rapidly until 1899.
when the percentage was only 1884.
Last year 1t was 40.6S per cent.-N. Y.
Mail and Express.