324 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



densed milk are probably not half what they are at the farms if farm 

 products are added to census figures. When the agricultural reports 

 are finally published and compared with the census figures it will 

 become possible to reduce these factors to terms very closely approxi- 

 mating the average per capita expenditures for consumption. The only 

 item of necessary expenditure which exceeds liquors and tobacco is the 

 expenditure upon animal food. The expenditure for beer is less than 

 five cents a day per capita; how much is the cost of milk? 



Item No. 6, Pig Iron. — The people of the United States are not only 

 the largest producers but also the largest consumers of pig iron in the 

 world; yet at 450 pounds per head, which is nearly double the domestic 

 consumption of England, Belgium, France and Germany, who are our 

 chief competitors, the average per capita product of pig iron at the 

 works comes to only $4.50 per head. Prices are rising and consump- 

 tion is increasing; by the time we have 80,000,000 people the average 

 consumption will probably be "500 pounds per head if the works can 

 supply it, which may then be computed at about five dollars per head 

 for the average of forge iron, Bessemer metal, and of iron ore con- 

 verted into open hearth steel, in their crude forms at the works ; making 

 on 80,000,000 a consumption of $400,000,000 worth at the place of pro- 

 duction. In order to carry this crude iron and steel into their finished 

 forms through various transformations, it is probable that at the points 

 of final consumption the products of iron and steel may be rated at 

 about $12.50 per head, or on 80,000,000 population $1,000,000,000, 

 a little more than half the price paid for liquors and tobacco. So 

 much for some of the chief factors in production and consumption. 



In this way I have given a preliminary study of the value of 

 the annual product at its point of ultimate consumption or export. 

 By making the study in smalls I have attempted to call your attention 

 to the relative importance of several elements of subsistence. It will 

 be several months before this study can be completed; suffice it that I 

 have gone far enough to prove conclusively to my own mind that even 

 on the return to normal prices, which may ensue if we have good crops 

 this year before the population of the country reaches 80,000,000, the 

 average of $225 per head or more will be proved, on which basis the 

 annual product computed at that date and in that manner will be meas- 

 ured by the sum of $18,000,000,000. It may then be possible to esti- 

 mate the proportion which this product will bear to the capital of the 

 nation, which will require a separation of the site value of land from 

 the estimate of national wealth by which the public is deluded. What 

 really constitutes national wealth is the use made of land and the im- 

 provements placed upon it by human energy. 



I may now give you some curious examples of how the income 

 derived from the production, purchase and sale of these commodities 



