1020] EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 593 



RTJIIAL ECONOMICS. 



Animal foodstuffs, E. W. Shanahan (New York: E. P. Dutton d Co., 1920, 

 lip. .lU). — This sLiuly in economic goograpliy and agricultural coondniics is one 

 of a series, edited by the Director of the London School of Economics and 

 Political Science, relating to the supplies of animal foodstuffs. From the stand- 

 point of the production of animal foodstuffs or the raw materials for the same, 

 tlie countries of the world are said to fall into four groups, the surplus-produc- 

 ing, tropical, elaborating commercial, and deficient industrial, and it- is noted 

 that the consuming population of the world li'>s almost entirely in three of the 

 ahove-montioned groups, the surplus-producing, elaborating commercial, and 

 defkiont industrial. Tlu'sc various regions are descril)ed in detail. Such t«jpics 

 as the supplies of capital, agricultural machinery in relation to the production 

 of animal foodstulTs, uses of land competitive with animal Industries, and cost 

 price and costs of production are discussed with reference to animal industry 

 as the key to permanent intensive agriculture. 



Conclusions are reached that there has been a relative decline in the output 

 of animal produce and that costs of production tend at the present to Increa.se, 

 yet there is progress in the direction of intensification and the .shortage of 

 animal foodstuffs may be of short duration, perhaps to be followed within a 

 decade or so by a period of comparative abundance for the consuming popula- 

 tion of the world. 



The latter part of the study is devoted, particularly, to the production and 

 con.sumption within the British Empire and .some effects of the war upon it. 



The cost of producing wheat in Kansas, crop of 1919, J. C. Mohleb 

 {Knns. Bd. Ayr. Quart. Rpt., 38 (1919), No. 151, pp. 31, figs. 7).— This is a sum- 

 mary of statements from 2,057 Kansas wheat growers, collected by the State 

 Board of Agriculture in December, 1919, by means of a questionnaire carrying 

 245 questions on the cost of producing wheat. These growers represent every 

 county in the State and both landowners and tenants. 



The cost per acre is stated to have been less affected by the yield than the 

 cost per bushel. For the State as a whole a loss of 43 cts. an acre is shown 

 for the crop of 1919, but in the main wheat belt (central Kansas) the loss 

 reached $1.52 an acre. Of the total wheat acreage in the State, 76 per cent 

 showed a loss and 24 per cent a gain. It is said, however, that these amounts 

 do not show the full extent of the loss because in the calculations nothing was 

 charged for the loss of fertility by the soil, the lack of compensation for over- 

 time work, and the lack of proper employment for a portion of the year. 



Tabulations are given, showing the number of acres, production, and value 

 of winter and spring wheat for the year 1919, and detailed statements of the 

 cost of producing an acre of wheat are included for the entire State, the east- 

 ern, central, and western divisions, and the northern and southern sections of 

 each of the latter. 



Farm tenancy and rural credits (Til. Leg. Ref. Bur., Constitutional Conv. 

 Bill. 1,] (1919), pp. 1079-1 123). — A compilation of information relating to farm 

 tenancy and absentee landlordism in Illinois and elsewhere, also to first- 

 mortgage systcm.s, Fe<leral farm loans, numerous State rural-credit systems, 

 second mortgag»>s, and short-time credits is offered for the consideration of the 

 Illinois Constitutional Convention in drawing up constitutional changes with 

 respect to farm tenancy, loans, and land taxation. 



Studies of land values in Iowa, O. G. Lloyd (loica Ayr.. 20 (1919), No. 9, 

 pp. 861-363; also in Jour. Farm Econ., 2 (1920), Ne. 3, pp. iS(J-///0).— Census 

 data and figures from surveys and other reports with reference to several 

 Iowa counties are tabulated to show the advance in the price of land from 



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