Evening star., 1916-12-03

Dakota The average Of fifteen bushels
to the acre was for period of ten
years. Acre yield dropped as low as
12.5 bushels in 1911.
The growers of wheat in the west do
not realize, perhaps, that carSoes of the
grain can be loaded on the Plata river
in the Argentine Republic at at trans
portation rate to New York of from
to cents a bushel in normal times. 1
have already said that the freight from
Kansas to the Atlantic coast is nearly
% cents.
our surplus wheat must compete
Liverpool market, and while that coun-
try produced but 1853. 100000 bushels
last year, the industry there is capable
of much larger development The
principal wheat countries as shown by
the figures of 1915 are the United
States. with a crop OF 1.o11.5O0. 600
bushels; the Russian empire, except Po-
land. with a crop of 761. $50. 900 bushels;
British India, whose crop was 376,731,-
900 bushels: Canada, with 376.3O4.o00
bushels; France, with 25so00.oo0 bush
els; Austria Hungary. with 2o9,ooo.ooo
bushels; Italy, with 10, 500 900 bushels:
Germany, with 100000 bushels. and
Spain. with 139.000000 bushels.
THE year before the war Germany
bought 100000 bushels Of wheat and
176,000 barrels of -four in the United
States, and, of course. would be
heavy purchaser now If it had the free
dom of the Atlantic ocean. In gem
eral way ] have tried to give you an
outline of world conditions with re-
spect to wheat"
he TOD fafa IL
self at some time in the future? No
one can answer the question, nor do the
officers of the Department OF Agricul-
ture ever try publicly to answer IT.
Consumption in this country-seed and
fiour-just about equals the total pro-
duction Of wheat in France, Germany.
Italy and Egypt: or is just Il little less
than the total production OF Canada.
Argentina and Great Britain.
North Dakota grew more wheat than
Germany, by the figures of 1915. Kan
and Minnesota produced more than
the Argentine Republic; Ohio moro than
Egypt. Pennsylvania harvested nearly
as much Australia. The four big
grain states Of Kansas, Minnesota and
North and South Dakota grew consid-
erably more than Canada.
Are -four prices fair to the concumer? :?
An answer can be obtained with a lit
tie simple figuring. There are four and
a half bushels of wheat in a barrel of
-four. Two hundred and seventy pounds
l,
of -four. The by-products-bran. shorts
and so forth - weigh seventy-four
pounds and are sold in ono form and
another.
The dramatic and picturesque char
acters having parts in the anecdotes
legends and chronicles relating to the
growing of wheat in the new world
start with negro slave of Cortez
three or four kernels of the grain in
the rice provided for the Spanish SOL
diers. The grain was sown in Mexico
previous to the year 1880.
An adventurous English navigator.
Bartholomew Gosnard. financed by the
Earl of Southampton. sailed to Amer
lea In 1902 with twenty colonists. May
15 he discovered promontory which
he named Cape Cod. Seeing an island
in Buzzards bay, he landed and called
It Elizabeth, to honor his queen. The
Indians soon drove him away. but r OF
before he had sown some wheat, and
the first in the great country to be
known. more than u century after, as
the United States.
Nine years later wheat was intro
duced into the colony of Virginia.
George Washington grew wheat,
ground 1t into -four at his mill and
shipped a part Of the -four to the West
Indies. 1t was so excellent and his
weights were SO honest that his ship
ments. contrary to rule. were never in
spected. Flour. early in tho eighteenth
century. was exported from Philadel-
phia and Baltimore. the wheat coming
from the stump-covered farms of Penn
sylvania and Maryland.
The reaper invented in 1881 by Cyrus
H. Mccormick. Virginia youth of
twenty-five, and patented three years
after. really started this country into
the wheat-producing business. Like
wise It gave the United States q lead
ership in the manufacture of agricul-
turaI machinery that is still maintained
In evarv mart of the world.