THE WHEAT OF THE WORLD.

New Zealand Mail, 8 February 1900, Page 42

THE WHEAT OF THE WORLD.

In the Decerobeav“McGlure’s”-Mr Ray Stannard Baker gives in a dramvuc way the interesting facts in regard to the movement of the world’s wheat- crop the sources and volume of production, the machinery and methods, of distribution, and the rapidity of cdiisvluiptron. Of the present outlook for an ultimate wheat famine Mr Baker says: “There are at present” about- 517,0 ) ),- 000 bread-eaters in the world —nearly eight times the population of the United States. : An increase equal to t^o Xiondons is yearly swelling the enormous figures,' the additions coming partly from births in the more advanced countries, end partly from the training of the consumers of rice, rye and the lit--into a preference for wheat foods. The deduct ions’of years have shewn that each bread-eater—man, woman and childwill. consume a barrel of flour (tour and a half bushels of wheat) cocy year. The French, the English and the Anitir icans eat more than the avemgo, the Russians and the Germans eat less. On the basis of this average the breadeating w r orid requires more than 2,3U"),000,000 bushels of wheat every twelve months to supply its table with bread. If the wheat fields of the world produce as much as this, then there is plenty and prosperity the world over; if the production is less there is suifering and starvation. Few people realise how closely the crop is consumed each year. According to the statistician "of the United States Department of Agriculture, the world’s total production of wheat in 1897 was 2.226.745,000 bushels—not enough by millions of bushels to supply the world’s to id demand and furnish seed for the ertps of another year. Consequently countries of the earth where the crop was light were- visited by want and nyk prices, in India the need even touching the point of famine. During the following year, 1898. the crop was enormous, reaching a total production ’’exported as 2,879,924,000 bushels, but this is probably an overestimate; and as a consequence there was plenty J of food in nearly every part of he world, with a pronounced return of prosperity in the agricultural regions of the .United States.

PROMPT MOVEMENT REQUIRED. “Last year Sir William Crookes, the distinguished president of the--British Association for the Advancement of Science. considering the proportion between wheat production and wheat consumption. ventured to name the year 1931 as a date when the worlds bread-eaters would cry for more wheat than the ■world’s tanners ecu.cl produce. There is good reason to believe, as Mr Edward Atkinson has pointed out. that Sir \VL-

liam lias vastly underestimated the wheat-growing possibilities ot the earth, at least ot the United States. ¥et the statistics trom which such prophecies are drawn shows how very closely the consumer treads upon the heels of the producer, and how imperative is the necessity of distributing the crop—grown perhaps haif a world away lrom the centres of consumption—as soon as it is shaken from the threshers in a million fields, in order that every white man shall have his loaf, and have it before his last ; upply lias run out. ‘•Great Britain eats her entire wheat crop in about thirteen weeks, and then she must be supplied immediately with

SOME DAIRX BACTERIOLOGICAL PLATES. (Reproduced from article in New South Wales “Agricultural Gazette.”)

the products of Minnesota, or central Russia or India, or else she must suffer. If the United Kingdom could be completely blockaded, say by the ships of allied Europe, her population would probably be totally extinguished by starvation within three months. - The like-is true of every country in western Europe, although in some of them actual starvation could be much longer averted. This immediate requirement of the densely settled portions of the earth for a constant supply of bread overrides all laws and diplomats and nolitical considerations; it disregards Customs duties and the boundaries of nations; and it is the foundation of the world’s monev svstems.

.mo wvwi »uu uun»imas wareuouse. DAIRYING ILLUSTRATIONS. (FOR LETTERPRESS SEE DAIRYING PAGES IN THIS WEEK’S ISSUE.)

for wheat must move that men mayhaio bread.” Mr Baker estimates the needs of Americans for the coming year as 415. 500,060 bushels. Thev wi 1 get from thV crop of 1899 over 600,000,000 bushels... and will have about 200.000,000 bushels to send abroad, a third ot which will be transported as flour, and the balances the grain.

The promoters of the proposed winter show have decided to abandon the project owing to the lack of interest ani support.