H. I'. T. ^54. 



AMERICAN EXPORT CORN (MAIZE) 



IN EUROPE. 



INTRODUCTION. 

 PRODUCTION AND EXPORTS OF t50RN. 



Statistics as <i;iv(Mi in the various Yearbooks of tlie De])artmeiit of 

 Agriculture show that the quantity of corn (maize) produced in the 

 United States during a period of ten years, from 1898 to 1907, inchi- 

 sive, was 23,092,986,802 bushels. During the same period there 

 were shipped out of the counties where it was grown 4,733,298,990 

 bushels, or 20.5 ])er cent of the production, the remaining 79.5 per 

 cent presumably being used on the farm or in the counties where it 

 was grown. 



For a corresponding period of ten years beginning July 1, 1898, 

 and ended June 30, 1908, the domestic exports of corn (corn meal 

 not included) were 1,060,856,485 bushels, or 4.6 per cent of the 

 production and 22.4 per cent of the quantity shipped out of the 

 counties where grown, the quantity shipped out of the producing 

 counties constituting practically the whole of the possible commerce 

 in corn of the United States. 



THE VALUE OF THE EXPORT TRADE IN CORN. 



Corn is, in num})er of bushels, the principal grain that enters into 

 the export grain trade of the United States. The percentage of corn 

 that is exported, while but a small proportion of the total production, 

 is in point of the percentages of the possible commerce in corn, the 

 number of bushels exported, and the money values involved an 

 enormous trade, which naturally has an important bearing upon the 

 present and prospective wealth of the country. The prices that are 

 obtainable for the corn exported are naturally influencetl to a great 

 degree by the quality and condition of the corn at the time it is laid 

 down in foreign countries, and the foreign prices obtainable have in 

 turn been an influential factor in fixing its domestic values. 



EUROPEAN COMPLAINTS. 



For several years an increasingly large number of more or less 

 forcible and persistent representations were made to the Secretary 

 of Agriculture and other officers of the Federal Government, to the 

 effect that much of the grain, and especially the corn, that was being 

 exported from the United States was not being delivered abroad in a 



[Cir. 55] 3 



