| Show FOREIGN TRADE RETURNS the report on labor and commerce submitted by secretary shows that foreign trade is in a prosperous condition although agricultural exports have fallen oft very greatly in volume the export of flour for example fell from in 1903 and in 1901 to in and those of wheat from in 1903 and in 1904 to in 1903 these aro very large figures but to view them with discouragement would show a very superficial comprehension of their true meaning in the first place the reduction Is more than counterbalanced by a very large increase in the exports of manufactures fac tures als increase brings thia branch of trade lo 10 larger dimensions than it has ever before chown its total is no less than against in 1893 in 1885 and in 1875 cotton exports have also increased to as against in 1804 and in wheat has therefore sunk to an almost un low point while manufactures fac tures and cotton are higher than they have ever been before many reasons are assigned tor the tall in wheat exports and they have acted simultaneously to produce the results that we see in the first place american production in 1904 was very low and this coincided with large crops and low prices abroad these of course are factors that are always somewhat incalculable but the third factor that of an increased home demand will necessarily appear with steadiness henceforth and its importance will be constantly enhanced this years report what is now n constant tendency there is nothing spasmodic or irregular about it it must be remembered that the population is enormously not so much by internal crowth as by immigration the returns from the immigration officials represent human beings who must be fed and ahey are ot course steadily arriving by tens of thousands accompanying this increase in tho population there ia a corresponding correspond ins decrease in the vacant lands upon which demands for an increased wheat supply can be made recently it has been true that our enlarged needs could bo met by a widening of the area of cultivation and the food supply could then easily keep pace with tho population but now the end of the road is in sight and while the limit of population has a very great elasticity there is no elasticity whatever about land there arc no longer vacant prairies waiting for the pioneer and the plow and such figures as those now submitted by secretary constitute a very broad hint to take stock of our capabilities bili ties and to measure our hospitality by our resources As a matter of fact abo wheat supply of last year was not much more than tor amerl can appetites and while ye may reasonably expect a somewhat better output in future it ia evident that the larder is none too all stocked tor who will be dependent upon it now ac america has not much more than enough wheat to feed her own at a time when the european granvile i have been filled from eu ropes own fields what will be the condition when poor harvests in eu lope attract american cheat to make good the deficiency wheat will of course gravitate toward the best market and prices elsewhere will just as naturally level upward the limit of production in europe has been reached long ago unless pleasure grounds game preserves and the like are to bo pressed into the service of feeding more human beings avery scarcity ia europe therefore means a corresponding demand on diio inelastic capacities of america and we therefore seem to be within sight of the eld problem of food aud population canada of course has vacant land and these 1 may stave oft the dakof reckoning for a time we may therefore to find in future economic statements that ft heat exports continue to fall with the increasing number of american mouths that must be filled and that manufactured exports continue to aleo as skill and enterprise increase and become constantly more productive 1308 are made by the genral land office this fund is according t 0 law to be inverter by the secretary of the interior in feasible irrigation projects which hlll repay the amount to the t in ton annual installments from the settlers the appropriation of the fund by secretary hitchcock has been practically completed and the plans matured for expending the entire fund on certain definite projects in the west which practically brings to an end further surveys and examinations and permits ithe concentration of effort of the reclamation service on the building of a few important projects |
