The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1900-01-19
CEREAL EXPORTS.
Statistics of the Way This Country
Feeds the World,

Feeds the World.
The importance of the American
farmer is not revealed in it's fullest
extent until his relation to the worlds
food supply is considered That rela-
ton it may be stated is very init
mate one, as men OF all nations would
ettest If the farmer should suddenly
decide to go out of business and live
on the gains of the past two years.
Then the old adage Half a loaf is
better than none" 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 $500, 000..
600 for cereal alone. This, be it re-
membered, is after catering to a very
heavy home demand. The largest sin.
gle item is furnish by wheat. Corn,
cornmeal and flour contribute the 9th.
er parts. Last fiscal year was a rec.
ord one for flour, when 18,4S5, 500 bar
rels were shipped. The number Of
bushels of wheat was 139, 432 ,S15. In
1891 the amount of wheat was 49,.
100000 bushels, which is the greatest
total of which any account is to be
had. During 1S979S the exports of
corn amounted to POSTAL, 900, which
was the record in that cereal up to
that time.
If one wishes to show the stupendous
results of agrarian labor one should
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 1900 0e0,.
000 bushels of corn and wheat have
been sent out of the country to supply
deficiencies in the food products of
European nations.
There has been gradual develop
ment in these sixty-eight years, with
several periods of very 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 flour
In that interval was 5,241 ,964 barrels.
By 1865 the wheat exports had risen
TO a total of 1873 ,306,0OO bushels ten
years later they were 224,019,316
bushels. doubling in the fiveyear per-
Tod following.
The best prices that the farmer has
received for his wheat came between
1865 and 1870, when he averaged on
the five years SLAB a bushel. The
average between 1890 and 1895 was
50 cents. In 1895 he only received
65 cents for what wheat he SEM
abroad and shipped out 40,OOG000
bushels, less ;klan 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 -four to the total since
1NN. In that year it reached 972 per
CENT? The ratio fell rapidly until 1899,
wh<n the percentage was only 1884.
Last year it was 40 6S per cent.--N. Y.
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