The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-04-04
Wheat and Flour Statistics Showing
 Production in This Country.

From an Article by F. w. Fitzpatrick of
 the Treasury Department.
 A couple of years ago Sir William Crookes. a noted English scientist. start ed in to scare us by compiling lot of figures to show that our wheat supply was nearly, and soon would be, absolute ly inadequate to the wants of tLe ever increasing numbers of the worlds bread eaters, and that we would have to turn to some other staff of life;" bread would be the rich mans food.
 That bread is becoming a more and more popular food there is no doubt In 1877 there were 39I 100000 bread eaters in the world; in 1894 there were 490.SO0,00o, and in 1901 we had jumped up to 54O,OO 900. A lively increase, l grant you, and d steady one. while our wheat crops are far from steady. The first year named there was a deficit of 150, 0O0O00 bushels that had to be made up from the savings, the over-supply held in store from former years. lnI 1894, in spite of the great in crease in consumers necessitating sup ply of 2,234. 0U0.O0U bushels of wheat, our crop permitte that we store away 33i ,Un, 600 bushels for future emergencies. Then. on the contrary, in lS97 there was de- ficit, and we had to draw upon our sav- ings of wheat for 31l. 900 900 bushels.
 Sir William and other statisticians seem to fear that farmers will continue to cul- tivate better paying crops instead of wheat until the dark things they proph- esy. will come to pass. As a matter of
 
 5. 400, 900 acres less of wheat in 1897 than there were in 1884 But it Is not as if these acres were being built upon or for ever barred to wheat raising. The ever lasting law of supply and demand will regulate all that; even if that same acre age Is never turned into wheat again we have untold, almost incalculable virgin wheat lands still untouched. Why. in the Dominion of Canada, it's northwest terri tories and Manitoba there are but 5000 in wheat today while they have 24O. 000. 600 acres of wheat-growing land. And then. too, our averages tell the story. A scientist is as apt to take fig ures for a specific period, juggle them the result. We actually need for breaC purposes the world over an average oi , 324 00O, 900 bushels of wheat year The crop of lS9S the smallest for seven years was 22l4 OOO. 900 bushels. while the average crop since 1890 has been 2,4TS45,OOO bush els, leaving us neat Htlc nest egg Of l50,' 000, 900 bushels a year.
 | It may be safely stated that as oul numbers increase, and as We eat more | and more bread, so will the farmers o | the world increase their wheat acreage | In this country alone. leaving out th' l Argentine and India, We can add 3o pei | cent. a year to the worlds bread suQpN | without any very extraordinary eifor | for centuries yet. ~ Our wheat supply this year Will o' | something below the average. The hlte' l States wall N1elO ltSS llldii lb he' ASA ~''@ | of the past ten years. lndla-poor; lam III | ine-stricken Inda-wil show but ls3,OOOW i bIlshels over i00O0,0O0 bushels less thai 1 her average Manitobas wheat IS neloV | the average quantity. too. this crop Sn' l will have less than l1,000,0OO bushels La | Bulgarian crop IS large. The liungarma 1 is below the average; there Will De hu | about l:,5 GOO bushels. Australia an' | Chile will show material reductions; m m i l Argentine crop Is heavy, some lO5'ooo'W l bushels. and Uruguay's crop VIII prop l ably make a poor showing. or lU pc
 cent below last years. f1gures froi | Russia are slow in coming in. but tn 1 Department of Agriculture ahucipat'
 that that crop will also be below tn | average a trit1e.
 | To understand the world s averages | will cite you the figures of lS96, Our grand | total that year was .43o,0O0 0Oo-an aver | age yield. Of that quantity North Amer icn supplied 99I bushels, Souti l America 66OO0. 900, Europe 1,4S4, ,30l ,0Oo | Asia 339, ,397. .000. Africa s. 100000, and Aus | tralasia 25, 906, 900 bushels.
 | In the United States we devote abou | 3e GOO, GOO acres to wheat-raising, and ou
 average yield is about E l-2 bushels t | inc acre. Minnesota. of course, leads Of | st inc head of wheat-raising States Wit | ahont one-ninth of our total supply | dIonsas follows next with about One-thir | teenth: then Ohio next. on down to Con | nerticut. that raises only about 3ooo ousn l els year.