316 Kansas Academy of Science. 



example, 514,200,800 bushels in the United States. The av- 

 erage high price per bushel the following May in Chicago from 

 1890 to 1899 was 91.34 cents for wheat. The average domes- 

 tic export from 1890 to 1899 was 173,044,583 bushels. In 



1890, 1893, 1894, 1895 and 1896 both the production and do- 

 mestic export were lower than the average for the ten years in 

 question, but the highest price received per bushel above the 

 average highest price at Chicago the following month of May 

 was only found in the years 1890 and 1896. In the years of 



1891, 1892, 1898 and 1899 we had simultaneously higher pro- 

 ductipn and higher domestic export of wheat and flour than the 

 average for this ten-year period, but the price per bushel paid 

 in Chicago was lower than the average paid for this ten-year 

 period. In 1897 we had higher production and higher domestic 

 export of wheat and flour than the ten-year average ; but con- 

 trary to what was expected, we had higher price per bushel 

 paid at Chicago than the year average high price per bushel. 

 In fact, the highest cash price paid for wheat in the Chicago 

 market was in 1897, between the years of 1866 to 1914. 



Probably the meat question is altogether the most important 

 material problem witli which the average family must deal in 

 maintaining, for its every member, the fund of strength nec- 

 essary to keep in the best M^orking condition. There is prob- 

 ably no other problem of household economy or of individual 

 maintenance that is so little understood by the average person 

 as what makes the price of meat. We know the price of meat 

 is high ; in fact, so high as to be nearly prohibitive to the poorer 

 classes Even the packer of meat realized this when he said 

 that a market condition that encourages the livestock grower 

 to produce heavily and the consumer to eat generously spells 

 volume of trafl^c, and volume of business at a small profit is a 

 distinctive feature. He goes on to say that a market of this 

 kind means a satisfied producer on the range, the farm, and 

 the feedlot, and a contented consumer in city, town and coun- 

 try — everywhere. 



The higher development of waste saving and the utilization 

 of by-products in the packing plant depend upon volume. 

 Perhaps the packer of meat is honest in his convictions, but he 

 does not explain the millions of cattle, calves, sheep, lambs and 

 hogs at the present time in hundreds of cold-storage plants. 

 It is true that it takes two or three years to produce a steer and 



