4 ANNUAL EEPOETS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTUEE. 



AGRICULTURAL EXPORTS. 



The abundant supplies of foodstuffs made it possible for the 

 country to meet the greatly increased foreign demand and still 

 to retain enough at home to satisfy the normal domestic needs. It 

 was fortunate for our financial relations that these enormous crops 

 coincided with the breaking out of the war. Last fall the question 

 seriously was raised as to how this Nation could discharge to Euro- 

 pean creditors its floating obligations, amounting at the time, accord- 

 ing to the best estimates, to about $400,000,000. It was expected 

 that the exportation of manufactures would decrease, and it was 

 not laiown that there would be available for export and would 

 be exported such a volume of agricultural commodities. As a mat- 

 ter of fact, between August 1, 1914, and February 1, 1915, the exports 

 were $1,157,000,000 and the imports $771,000,000, giving a favorable 

 balance of $386,000,000. Of the total volume of exports, $662,000,000 

 represented agricultural and only $495,000,000 nonagricultural 

 commodities, chiefly manufactures. In the same period for the 

 preceding year there were exported $638,000,000 worth of nonagri- 

 cultural and $722,000,000 of agricultural products, of which cotton 

 alone represented 55 per cent, or $407,000,000, and all other agri- 

 cultural commodities, chiefly foodstuffs, only $315,000,000. On the 

 other hand, from August 1, 1914, to February 1, 1915, the cotton 

 exports were only $168,000,000 and other agricultural products, 

 mainly foodstuffs, $494,000,000. 



The total agricultural exports in the fiscal year ended June 30, 

 1915, practically the first year of the war, were $1,470,000,000, which 

 is an increase of $356,000,000, or 32 per cent, over those of the pre- 

 ceding year, and of $433,000,000, or nearly 42 per cent, over the 

 average of the five years 1910-1914. 



A comparison of exports of the year with those of the preced- 

 ing year shows that the exports of horses and mules increased 

 from $4,000,000 to $77,000,000, meats and dairy products from $146,- 

 000,000 to $220,000,000, wheat (and wheat flour) from $142,000,000 

 to $428,000,000, corn (and cornmeal) from $7,000,000 to $39,000,000, 

 oats from $1,000,000 to $57,000,000, and barley from $4,000,000 to 

 $18,000,000, while cotton decreased from $610,000,000 to $376,000,000 

 and tobacco from $54,000,000 to $44,000,000. These products com- 

 prise nearly nine-tenths of the total agricultural exports. 



