152 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



any branch of agriculture, which would be devoted to wheat on an 

 assured price of one dollar a bushel in Mark Lane, yielding 960,- 

 000,000 bushels. Or, to limit the question yet more: Sir William 

 Crookes states the needs of the people of the United Kingdom at the 

 present time to be 240,000,000 bushels, increasing at a rate of 

 less than two per cent per annum, of which twenty-five per cent is 

 derived from her own soil. If John Bull, in place of building 

 granaries, could offer thirty-three shillings a quarter, or one dol- 

 lar a bushel, in London as a permanent price for the next thirty 

 years, would not Uncle Sam accept the offer? and if Uncle Sam 

 should then ask for bids among the States, are there not several 

 single States or Territories that would take the contract each for 

 itself? 



Having put that question, I now propose to submit an inquiry in 

 due form in order to sustain my own belief that we can supply the 

 whole present and the increasing demand of Great Britain for the 

 next thirty years with six bushels of wheat per head at a dollar a 

 bushel from land situated wholly in the Indian Territory, not yet 

 open to private entry, but which may soon be open when the Indian 

 titles have all been purchased. Or, again, I undertake to say that the 

 State of Texas can meet this whole demand without impairing in the 

 slightest degree its present products of grain, cotton, wool, and meats, 

 and without appropriating the use of more than a small fraction of 

 the area of that single State which has not yet been fenced in or sub- 

 jected to the plow to the production of wheat. 



Perhaps it would be better to put a more simple proposition in 

 order to bring out what would be perfectly feasible. Let it be as- 

 sumed that the British public should really become so alarmed as to 

 be willing to put up the granaries which have been suggested for 

 storing fourteen weeks' consumption, or 64,000,000 bushels. That 

 would require a very large capital which would yield no income 

 on which there would be a heavy loss of interest and a considerable 

 risk of damage to the wheat during the period of storage. In place 

 of this a feasible plan would be to put up the capital which would 

 be required for building these granaries, invest it in consols, and 

 pledge it as collateral security for the fulfillment of a contract run- 

 ning for thirty years for the annual purchase of 10,000,000 bushels 

 of wheat per month, or say 128,000,000 bushels a year, or twice the 

 quantity proposed to be stored. 



There are several large dealers in grain and provisions in the 

 United States who would" be ready to take this contract and to put up 

 a sufficient sum of capital invested in United States bonds to serve 

 as security for prompt delivery. 



An assured supply of 128,000,000 bushels in addition to the 



