Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-06-05
Foodstuffs Increasing Factor in
lmports---Decreasing in Exports

Washington, June 4.-Home con-
nearly overtaken home production that
the United States is not only reduc-
ing it's sales of foodstuffs abroad but
drawing more largely upon foreign
countries for certain of its food re-
quirements. An analysis of the
foreign trade during the first six
months under the new tariff has been
made by the Bureau of Foreign and
Domestic Commerce, Department of
Commerce. From this it is shown
that imports of foodstuffs in their ma
tural condition, including food ami
mails, increased from SIT 1929 in the
half year ended with March, 1913, to
s14S, 421 ,536 in a like period ended with
March, 1914; and that imports of food
stuffs partly or wholly prepared for
use in the same period advanced from
sos, 744,241 to s100,s6 ,37s. Thus the in
crease in importations of all food
products in the period named amount
ed TO over $50, 900 900, or an average
of s5,000,0o0 per month.
On the export side the figures are
even more striking. OF crude food
stuffs the sales to foreign countries
fell off more than 50 per cent, while
prepared foodstuffs also declined,
though in smaller proportion. Elk
ports of the first-named group fell
from 15,S50,453 in the six months pc
Rod of last year to 800, 4S3,7S7 in the
half year which ended with March of
the current year, and manufactured
food products from $50, 007 .422 to &c.,
022, $50.
The articles of food showing the
largest increases in importations dur
ing the six months under review are
fresh beef, cattle, corn, wheat, rice.
maearoni, fruits, molasses, and edi-
BILE oils. We imported during the six
months which ended with March last
$4,000 head of cattle, or more than
double the number imported in the
corresponding period a year earlier:
So rs million pounds of beef and veal,
or over so times as much as q year
ago; nearly Q million bushels of corn,
or 80 times as much as in the corre-
spending six months of last year; 140
million pounds of rice and rice flour,
or nearly so million pounds more than
year ago; and Go million pounds of
macaroni, vermicelli, and other SIM
liar preparations, as against. So mil
lion pounds in the corresponding six
months of the preceding year. Sugar
is conspicuous exception to the rule
of increasing imports of food products.
OF cane sugar the imports in the six
months ended with March amounted
to 1850 million pounds, compared with
1909 million in the corresponding six
months of 1928, while of beet sugar
the imports fell to 1 Ia million pounds,
in comparison with 1S2 million pounds
in the half-year period which ended
with March, 1913.
While in many instances the above
mentioned food products form a small
proportion of the domestic consump-
ton, as in the case of corn, wheat,
and meats the increase in imports in
recent months has been SO rapid as
to give promise of reducing before
long the shortage of our own food
supply.
The following table illustrates the
changed position of the United States
in respect to imports and exports Of
food products during the last fifteen
years, and shows that the balance of
trade has shifted to the import side.
Six months
ended March
1898 1913 1914
Imports of
foods, $3.50 900, 900 $405, 600 900 $244 100000
Exports of
foods, $50 100000 502, 000O 600 2l7000,000
Detailed statistics regarding the
imports and exports of food products
are published in reports of the Bu-
reau of Foreign and Domestic Com
merce, and are available not only in
Washington but also in its branch Of
fees at New York, Chicago, New Or
leans, and San Francisco and in pub
lie libraries of the principal cities of
the country.
Statements relating 10 specific food
commodities, including their sources