The Medina sentinel. [volume] (Medina, Ohio) 1888-1961, 1921-03-18
WRoNG-IDEAs ABOUT.
BEEF SURPLUS IN u S.
Imports to This Country Some Years
# 1, Exceeds Exports. +

Popular misunderstanding is mag
nifying the superficial fact that this
country has beef surplus surplus
that has had precarious existence
both before the World War and since.
There is something more to the story
than the exports of several hundred
million pounds of beef and its product
in year. To the extent that this is
balanced by imports of beef, beef pro-
ducts and beef cattle, it is not a<sur-
plus according to the Bureau of Crop
Estimates, Department of Agriculture.
Not only did the imported exceed
the exported beef in 1914, but the
equivalent beef and its products and
edible by-products of the cattle inn
ported from Canada and Mexico great
ly exceeded the exports of beef cattle,
so that, within the scope of the terms
here used, the United States was de-
| ficiency country with respect to beef
in that year to the extent Of 480,00O,-
900 pounds. Similarly in 1915, the
! national beef deficiency was 100000
! pounds.
War demands turned the tide sin
1916, when the national surplus of beet
was 1s3, 100000; in 1917 it was zoe, ,000,-
900 pounds, and in 1918 the surplus
was 56,000,000. But the debts so far
offset the credits in 1919 that the beef
surplus fell to 59000,000 pounds, or
less than per cent. of the production
including edible by-products,
+! The United States has been a sur
plus mutton country, since 1918, only
in 1918 and 1919, by 100000 and S..
100000 pounds respectively. On the
other hand, the enormous export Of
pork and its products has been un.
failing year after year for grea1
many years, with totals of hundreds Of
millions of pounds, even extending
beyond 2,500,000,000 pounds in 1913
With regard to excess OF either pro
duction or consumption of beef ant
mutton, this country may be said tt
be in see-sawing position, except al
influenced by such high-priced for
eign demand as that of a great war.
After all, the constant great nationa
meat surplus is one of pork and 1T
products.
Meat was exported by the surplus
countries of the world in greatly in
creased quantities in response to th'
wars demands. The better to under
| stand this, continues the Bureau o
Crop Estimates, it is we'll to compar'
the change in supply for the five years
from 1913 to 1918, with the change TO
the eighteen years from 1895 to 1918
or period three and three-fifths time
as long. y
| The total exports Of all kinds 0
meats increased by one-haf in eacl
period; animal fats and oils gained b.
one-fifth in the earliest period, bu
remained stationary in the war period
mutton nearly doubled in the Garlic
period, but declined one-half in tn
| later one, or to the original quantity
! pork gained only one-tenth in tn
| eighteen years, or hardly at all, yet
/ almost doubled in the five years.
i What was substantially the world
export meat trade of the surplu
countries in 1895 was 2,734,00000
pounds, as determined by the Burea
of Crop Estimates; by 1899, tn
quantity had risen to 3,537,0O0,O0
pounds, and by 1918, the year befor
the World War began, it was 4,lOl,
100000 pounds. In 1918, the last yea
of the war, the worlds export mea
| trade was 64,460,000,000 pounds.