148 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



" Bread-eaters have almost eaten up the reserves of wheat, and 

 the 1897 harvest being under average, the conditions become serious. 

 ... It is clear we are confronted with a colossal problem that must 

 tax the wits of the wisest. Up to recent years the growth of wheat 

 has kept pace with demands. As wheat-eaters increased, the acreage 

 under wheat expanded. We forget that the wheat-growing area is 

 of strictly limited extent, and that a few million acres regularly ab- 

 sorbed soon amount to a formidable number. The present position 

 being so gloomy, let us consider future prospects." 



He then deals successively with the United States, Russia, 

 Canada, and other countries. In regard to the United States he 

 remarks : 



" Practically there remains no uncultivated prairie land in the 

 United States suitable for wheat-growing. The virgin land has been 

 rapidly absorbed, until at present there is no land left for wheat 

 without reducing the area for maize, hay, and other necessary crops. 

 It is almost certain that within a generation the ever-increas- 

 ing population of the United States will consume all the wheat 

 grown within its borders, and will be driven to import, and, like 

 ourselves, will scramble for a lion's share of the wheat crop of the 

 world." 



It is difficult for a citizen of the United States who has given 

 any attention to the potential of our land to conceive of such views 

 being held by an Englishman of highest scientific intelligence. 

 When I was in England last summer I had a long interview with 

 the editor of one of the papers of widest influence in all Great 

 Britain. I then remarked that there were forces in action in the 

 United States in three or four different directions which would 

 profoundly change all the conditions of British industry, and ren- 

 der the English-speaking people of the United Kingdom and the 

 United States more and more interdependent. It is seldom that one 

 finds more than an occasional half a column in any great English 

 paper devoted to the subject of our economic relations and to the 

 development either of the American iron industry, of its agriculture, 

 or of the cotton production and manufacture. Yet, in all these 

 branches of industry, profound changes of world-wide importance, 

 and yet of greater importance to the people of Great Britain, are 

 now in progress. I may venture to say that this address of Sir 

 William Crookes marks even a more profound ignorance of the 

 forces in action in this country than even I had ever compre- 

 hended. Sir William Crookes next submits the following com- 

 putation : 



" The rate of consumption for seed and food by the whole world 

 of bread-eaters was 4.15 bushels per unit per annum for the eight 



