The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1903-07-10

1cFehAeHee OF AfA0Ns sources OF
Food supply-DimcuIty of Making
Comparisons Between Different Pc
riods-value Of wild Fruits ana
nuts,
The theory that figures never lie Is
possibly true, but that they may some
times Internationally mislead is Oh
vious from some deductions made in a
bulletin on the relations Of population
and food products Of the United States
compiled by James II Blodgett Of the
department Of agriculture, chiefly from
the census reports Of the last half cen
tury, says a Washington special dis
patch to the New York Post One Of
the difficulties Of drawing correct In
ferences concerning food resources
from the bare figures Of the census
enumeration Mr. Rlodgett finds to rest
III the danger of duplication. For ex
ample, when cattle are enumerated we
In some sense include the materials
furnished By cattle Milk does not rep
resent a resource additional to the cat
tie that produce the milk. Butter and
cheese are not resources additional TO
the milk from which they are made,
Eggs do not represent resources add.
tional to poultry.
Again we run into danger when we
count the food animals as additional
to the annual product Of grain. The
standard grains taken alone represent
their full value as expressed 10 the sta
tistical tables; SO do the cattle, swine,
sheep, poultry, likewise taken alone;
but to maintain these animals requires
a large part of the grain, and to count
the grain as available food and all the
animals also us available food would
be to count part Of the grain twice
first III its raw condition and then as
converted into animal products. More
over, the proportion Of grain fed to an
finals Is not definitely determined, nor
is it constant from year to year.
The difficulty Of comparisons be-
tween different periods is illustrated
by the native food animals, which
were relatively far more important in
1850 than now Fish Were then album
dant in streams which now yield q
scanty supply or have ceased TO flow
regularly. In northern Illinois, where
III the first half of the last century
trap set over night would furnish
bushel Of fish 10 the morning, some Of
the same waters now are sterile. Oys-
| tiers are decreasing. We have no means
of calculating the loss Of available food
in fifty years through the destruction
or deer and buffalo, wild turkeys, geese
and ducks, wood pigeons. prairie chick
ems and quail
wild fruits, such as grapes, berries
and nuts, have value for food not
measured in any census. The abun
dance Of blaekberries in certain regions
was manifest in the civil war, when
considerable bodies Of troops would
gather them freely for weeks without
exhausting those convenient to their
camps The chestnuts Of the mountain
districts. over wide stretches of coun
try, are roasted for eating just after
the frosts of the fall, and pecans.
which grow wild in the river bottom
lands Of certain parts Of the south, are
procurabIe all the year around In the
city markets Of the entire country
Less abundant. but still important, Is
the natural supply OF hickory nuts and
walnuts.
Another suggestion brought out in
the report Is the interdependence Of
states and countries for food supplies
Here is where we are liable to be mis-
led by d casual reading of the figures
in tables Of imports ana exports. II
does not necessarily imply that we are.
raising an insufficient quantity of a
particular product; that we find some
importations noted in the reports Of
any given period Some of the inn
portations may be due to the greater
convenience Of certain consumers TO
foreign producers than to producers
in distant parts of their own country
Thus Canada at the northeast and
the West Indies at the southeast are
closer to dense bodies Of population In
the United States than some sources
of supply within our own borders.
OF breadstufts and meats the United
States has usually great surplus for
export, but the amount we are able to
send abroad varies according to the
abundance of our own harvests and the
foreign demand. For example the re
markable drought Of 1901 cut down
our exports of food stuffs much below
those Of 1900 and the decline for 1902
was still more marked. The treasury
reports show the highest known ex-
ports Of corn to have been IN 1900, the
exports Of 1901 little less and a fur
Their reduction Of one-seventh between
1901 and 1902. AS oats were needed
at home to make up in part for the
dearth Of corn, their exports declined |
from $12000,000 in 1901 to s4000000l
III 1902. on course, with less feed ma
terial less i've stock could be raised, !
with the result that the exports OF cat /
tie and beef products fell Off S11,O00- |
600 between 1901 and 1902. In spite |
of the lessons Of thrift forced upon
mankind by civilization the world is
never far removed from dependence
en- the last preceding harvest. In other
words, abundant haryests do not fur