OCR Text |
Show No Shortage cf Foodstuffs Likely. (Continued fnun liit page.) coining on the market. It is estimated esti-mated that from that source there will be available 100,liOO,000 bushels. A surplus of 75,Ol0,000 bushels or more from India will be available in May and June. The increase in the fall-sown fall-sown wheat acreage of the United states ia 1914 was 11.1 per cent, or over 4,000,000 acres; in the Northern Hemisphere generally the acreage of winter wheat shows an increase from 3 to 33 per cent, as follows: Per cent. Denmark . . Italy . . . a Switzerland . . lo United Kingdom . 10 United States . . 11 India . 22 Canada 1 . 33 But suppose ashoitage in wheat should develop in the next three months, what would be the situation? There is a great surplus in other food crops in the United States, a number of which can be used as substitutes. Wheat doesnot constitute more than 12 percent of the normal diet, about the same as poultry and eggs. Meat and dairy products constitute per cent; vegetable. 11 per cent, friuts, nuts, sugar, fish, and other items the remaining 19 per cent. There are larger supplies of corn and other grains, meat animals, dairy products, potatoes and fru it at the opening of 1915 than for many years. 1 he most important competing products are corn and potatoes. This is shown by the fact that while the normal consumption con-sumption of wheat is 5.3 bushels, in Maine it is only -L7 bushels and in Michigan 5. In the wheat growing-states, growing-states, where wheat is abundant, such as Minnesota, the average is 7.2, whereas in the South, where corn is much used, the average is 4 bushels. Normally about 3 per cent of the corn crop is consumed as food. Of our total crop about S0,000,000 bushels would be used for food, the remainder for other purposes. The remainder could be used for foods and substituets ued for animals. The potato production pro-duction in the United States averages 3.8 bushels per capita. This year the available supply is 4.1 bushels. The average price of meat animals was 7 per cent cheaper in January than a year ago, butter 2 per cent lower, the price of chickens slightly lower, of potatoes 35 per cent lower, and of apples ap-ples it was 37 percent lower. It would seem that the United States is not likely to be threatened with a shortage of food stuffs. |