Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1911-06-23
nnrAT PRODUCTION
IN UNITED STATES

"oehSSN ny tuS bSpdTtiuenV OF Apfl-
culture, lends interest to the records
of production in, and movements into
and out of the country of wheat and
its products as published by the Blu
reau of Statistics, Department of
Commerce and labor. Wheat has al
ways been an important factor both
in the production and foreign COM
merce of the United States, and C. n
tinues to increase in Importance in
the matter of production, though
somewhat decreasing in the quantity
exported.
The wheat production in the Unit
ed States in 1870 was 236 million
bushels; in 1880, 49S 1-2 million; in
1889, 400 1-2 million-dropping to
800 million in 1890 but advancing
to 612 million in 1891, -522 million
in 1900, and 665 million in 1910;
though even higher records were
made in 1901, 749 million bushels.
and 1906. 735 million.
Much has been said about the low
product per acre of wheat in the
United States when compared with
that in European countries, and it is
doubtless true that wheat production
in certain countries of Europe. where
great attention is given to the care of
the land and the supply of proper soil
foods, is greater per acre than in the
United States. On the other hand.
however, it is equally true and inter
esting that the yield per acre in the
United States is increasing, having
averaged 1873 bushels per acre in
1909, against ID bushels per acre in
1907 and 1908, - 1-2 bushels in
1904, 13 bushels in 1894, and 10 1-2
bushels in 1885. While the produc
tion per acre of course fuctuates
from year to year, the average pro-
duction per acre during recent years
has clearly been higher than the av-
erage for the last decade or two.
This slight increase in the quantity.
coupled with the material advance in
price, brought the average farm value
per acre for 1909 up to $15.6 per
acre, against an average of about
half that figure in the period from
1890 to 1900.
Meantime the quantity of wheat
retained for domestic consumption has
greatly increased, while the quantity
exported has been reduced. In the fs-
cal year 1910 the quantity retained
for consumption was $50 million
bushels, being larger than in any
earlier year and the quantity export
ed, 81 million, which was less than in
any fiscal year since 1877, with the
single exception of 1905, when only
ID million bushels were exported. In
1908 the exports aggregated 163 mil
lion bushels, and in 1902, the high
record year in wheat expectations,
235 million.
These figures of wheat exporta-
tions, it is proper to add, include
both that shipped in the grain and
that in the form of flour. The share
of the wheat exports in the form of
flour in the fiscal year 1910 was 46. S
per cent and in 1908, when the
quantity exported was about double
that of 1910, but 1874 per cent. In
those years in which the expectations
are extremely small the share export
ed in the form of flour is larger than
in years of large wheat exports. In
1905, for example, when the wheat
expectations touched the lowest figure
in many years-44 million bushels
the share which went in the form of |
flour was $50 per cent against Sd
per cent in 1902, the high record
year in wheat of exports. In the fis-
cal year which ends with the present
month the quantity of wheat exported
will probably be less than in 1910.
the total for the IL months ending
with May having been but % million
bushels, against IA million in the
same months of 1909, and of flour,
8 1-3 million barrels, against 8 1-2
million in the same months of 1908, |
indicating. a total for the year not to
exceed 25 million bushels of wheat
and the equivalent of 45 million
bushels in the form of hour-a total
of approximately 70 million bushels
for the fiscasl year 1911, against 81
million in 1910, and making for 1911
the smallest wheat export record in
30 years, except the abnormally low
year, 1905, when the record was but
al million.
Europe is our chief customer for
wheat exported in the natural state,
while the larger proportion of that
exported in the form of flour goes to
the tropics and the orient. OF the
81 Sd million bushels of wheat ex-
ported in the 10 months ending with
April, nearly IL million went to the
United Kingdom, 1-2 million to
France, 2 million to Belgium, and
one million to Canada. OF the flour
exports, amounting to and one third
million barrels in the ten months un-