This diagram indicates that during the past decade the pro duction of wheat has increased faster than population, while average annual yields by decades based upon the estimates of the United States Department of Agriculture indicate that the production of wheat has not increased as rapidly as population. (182)

184. Center of Wheat Production.—While wheat is grown in every State in the Union, the greater part is raised in the Mississippi Valley. Ten States produced sixty-five per cent, twenty States produced ninety per cent of all the wheat grown in the United States in 1900.

The center of wheat production in 1900 was about seventy miles west of Des Moines, Iowa (N. Lat. 41° 39′ 19′′ and W. Long. 94° 59′ 23′′). In fifty years this center has moved north about ninety-nine miles and west about 680 miles.

185. Winter Wheat and Spring Wheat.-In 1902 about threefifths of the wheat of the United States was sown in the fall. The yield for winter wheat was 14.4 and for spring wheat 14.7 bushels per acre.

Wisconsin, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Idaho, Washington and Oregon produce both winter and spring wheat. Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Colorado, Utah, Montana, New Mexico, Wyoming, Nevada, Arizona, Maine and Vermont raise

LIG

ALR

Map showing ten States each grinding more than twenty milion bushels of wheat in 1900.

spring wheat, while the rest of the States raise winter wheat.

186. Production of Flour.-There were about 490 million bushels of wheat made into flour in the United States in 1900. A little more than two-thirds of it was

ground in ten States, Minnesota alone grinding 103 million bushels.

1

187. Consumption of Wheat per Capita.-The census estimates the domestic consumption of flour to be equal to 5.31 bushels of wheat per capita in 1900, as compared with 5.29 bushels in 1890. As it takes 4.77 bushels of wheat to make a barrel of flour, this is 1.1 barrels of flour per inhabitant. About 1.4 bushels per acre, or about eleven per cent of the normal crop, is estimated to be required for seed. This makes the total requirement aside from its use as food for domestic animals and such secondary uses as breakfast foods, 6.29 bushels per inhabitant, or about 475 million bushels for the United States in 1900.

A wheat field producing forty-eight bushels of wheat per acre on one of the farms of Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y.

According to the Bureau of Statistics of the United States Treasury Department' the total amount of wheat used for all purposes for the five years ending 1902 was 390 million bushels, as compared with 300 million during the preceding five years.

For the five years ending 1902, the production of wheat in Europe has been 4.1 bushels per capita. The net import of wheat has been something less than one bushel per capita.

1 Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900. Vol. VI. Agr. Part II, p. 32. U.S. Treas. Dept., Bu. of Stat. Statistical Abst., 1902, p. 345.

This does not, however, represent Europe's total bread require ment, as large quantities of rye bread are used by the inhabitants of several European countries.

188. Yield per Acre.-There is a marked variation in yield per acre of wheat in different countries. It will be seen that the two countries which produce the most wheat have the smallest yield per acre.

Average yield of wheat in bushels per acre, 1894-1900:

Climate apparently has a greater influence in bringing about these differences in yield than either soil or cultural methods, although the latter are important factors. A moderately cool climate with a liberal supply of moisture prolongs the period during which the grain develops, thus favoring the development of the endosperm and thereby increasing the volume weight and the yield per acre. (74, 112)

189. Export of Wheat and Flour. The world's export of wheat and flour for the half decade 1898-1902 ranged from 347 million (1900) to 444 million (1902) with an average annual exportation of 411 million bushels. During the same period the exportation of wheat and flour from the United States was equivalent to 215 million bushels of wheat per annum, as compared with 155 million bushels the preceding five years, which was thirty-six and thirty-four per cent respectively of the total production. The following table is an estimate of the world's average annual export of wheat and flour for the five years 1898 1902:1

1 U. S. Dept. of Agr. Yearbook, 1902, p. 770.

The following table gives the exportation of wheat and flour from the United States by customs districts for the year ending June 30, 1902:1

The average annual export price of wheat from United States, 1898 to 1902, inclusive, was 78 cents per bushel; for flour $3.90 per barrel.

More than ninety-eight per cent of the wheat exported from the United States in 1902 was shipped from twenty ports. For the five years, 1898-1902, seven of these ports sending out

1 Commerce and Navigation of United States. Treas. An. Rpt. 1902, Vol. I. pp. 496-497.

more than ten million bushels annually, held the following rank; New York, New Orleans, Baltimore, Galveston, Boston, San Francisco, Willamette (Ore.). New York was the only port sending out as much as twenty millions annually, and her average annual shipment for the five years given was 29.3 million bushels. Other important ports were, respectively, Puget Sound (Wash.), Philadelphia, Portland and Falmouth (Me.), Superior (Wis.), Chicago and Duluth.1

190. Imports of Wheat.-All the countries which consume more wheat than they produce are situated in Europe, with the exception of the Oriental countries, which have recently begun to take supplies of wheat from North America. The larger part of the export of wheat and flour from the United States is taken by Great Britain and Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany, France and Belgium. Great Britain, as the principal importer of wheat, is the arbiter of its price throughout the world. The demand for wheat by Great Britain has increased rapidly during the past fifty years, through decrease in wheat production, through increase in population and in per capita consumption.

191. Commercial Grades.-Every important wheat market maintains a system of inspection of wheat and other grains. Wheat is bought and sold by grades and all wheat coming into a market is inspected and the grade determined by the inspector and when leaving this market may be inspected again. A specified charge is made for this service. The weight per bushel is determined in every sample, but other considerations help to fix the grade, as plumpness, soundness, freedom from foreign seeds or mixture with a different type of wheat. Aside from the weight per bushel, fixing the grade is largely a matter of judgment and expertness upon the part of the inspector. The information concerning these grades cannot satisfactorily be

1 U. S. Treas. Dept.. Bu. Stat. Statistical Abst., 1902, p. .