374 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



CONSUMPTION AND DISTRIBUTION. 



The proportion of wheat remaining in the hands of farmers March 

 1, 1887, is estimated at 2G.7 per cent, of the volume of the crop of 

 1886. This includes all on hand, whether of the last crop or any 

 older surplus. This is slightly less than the average proportion for 

 five years past. Only once has the record been higher than three- 

 tenths; it was 33.1 March 1, 1885, after the great crop of 1884. In 

 1883 it was 28.5; in 1884, 28.4; last March, 30.1 per cent, of a very 

 small crop. The crop record was 100,000,000 bushels more than that 

 of 1885; the farmers' stock March 1, only 15,000,000 bushels more 

 than that of the preceding March. The "visible sujDply," or com- 

 mercial stock, is 5,000,000 bushels more than last year — 57,000,000 

 against 52,000,000 bushels. In addition to these sources of supply 

 there are further stocks in flouring-mills, and en route from the mill 

 to the bakery and household storerooms, which are not here given. 

 A small amount may be on mercantile storage between the farmer's 

 bin and the elevator list of the commercial authorities. "Were such 

 stocks the same each year they need not be considered in a comj)ara- 

 tive statement. As to the milling stocks, it is evident that they were 

 greater last year than this. Had millers stocked up as in the autumn 

 of 1885, the farmers' stocks would doubtless have been lower than 

 last year. 



These estimates have been made for seven years, and the average 

 in farmers' hands has been 129,000,000 bushels; 7,000,000 bushels more 

 than the present stock. The figures are, in round numbers, as follows : 



Bushels. 



1887 122,000,000 



1886 107, 000, 000 



1885 ^. 169, 000, 000 



1884 119,000,000 



1883 143,000,000 



1882 98,000,000 



1881 145,000,000 



Surplus and distribution by groups of States. 



A larger vohime of wheat has gone into distribution from this crop 

 than from the last, though the proportion of the crop has been nearly 

 the same; about 58 per cent, of all. 



