-2- 



# 



Part of the reduction in com this year will te due to a decrease of 5.1 Per- 

 cent in acreage, "but acreages of wheat and oats are both up. Part of the reduction in 

 corn production will be offset by an increase of about l86 million bushels in the 

 stocks of corn on farms July 1. Oats holdings were also up 26 million bushels, but 

 farm stocks of wheat were down Ik million bushels. 



Another large acreage of soybeans is in prospect for 19^5* but the acreage 

 of beans grown alone for all purposes is down 2 percent frcm last year but still 

 kS percent larger than the 10-year, 195^-^3, average. 



The following comparisons apply to Illinois: Winter wheat production, July 1 

 estimate, 28.1 million bushels; final 19^+1^, 2U,5 million bushels. Cote production, 

 July 1 estimate, 13^.2 million bushels (102.0 million bushels). Com production, 

 July 1 estimate, 3^5.5 million bushels (U05.7 million bushels). 



June 13 prices of farm products . For the country as a whole, farm products 

 brought 119 percent of parity, as of June 15 . The principal products produced in 

 Illinois ranked as follows: 



# 



Item 



Potatoes 

 Chickens 

 Beef cattle 

 Lambs 

 Wool 



Percent 

 of parity 



Ikk 



ll+O 



158 



152 



152 



Item 



Soybeans 

 Milk 



Butterfat 

 Veal calves 

 Hogs 



Percent 

 of parity 



131 

 125 

 120 



118 

 112 



Item 



Eggs 



Com 



Wheat 



Oats 



Hay 



Percent 



of parity 



112 



100 



98 



98 



77 



European and Canadian crop prospects . The United States Department of 

 Agriculture reported last week that the outlook for grain production in Europe this 

 year is the poorest of the entire war period. Wheat prospects are particularly un- 

 favorable. Food allocation officials of the Department of Agriculture estimate that 

 650 million bushels of American wheat will have to go to Europe in the next year— half 

 from Canada and half from this country. The least favorable outlook is in the Mediter- 

 ranean area, where they had a drouth. Prospects in northern Europe are best. Produc- 

 tion in France, the Netherlands and central and eastern Europe will be reduced because 

 of reduced seedlngs and a shortage of fertilizer. Land reforms in Poland, the Baltic 

 States, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and eastern Germany seem to have disrupted production. 

 Grain seedlngs in Russia are much above 194if, and prospects indicate the best crop 

 there since 19ifO. 



The Bank of Montreal reports improved crop prospects in Canada's prairie 

 provinces and also in the provinces of Quebec and Ontario, In some sections the sea- 

 son is about two weeks late, and timely rains and warm weather still will be needed. 

 The Dominion Bureau of Statistics reports spring wheat condition in Canada on June 30 

 at 97 percent normal compared with 119 percent on the same date last year. Condition 

 of oats Is 61 percent compared to 97 percent a year ago, and rye 78 percent against 

 92 percent a year ago. 



The cattle situation^ Government officials suggest that marketings of both 

 grass-fat and grain-fed cattle in the last half of 19^4-5 probably will be larger than 

 a year earlier. Total cattle and calf slaughter in the first half of this year appar- 

 ently was about 10 percent larger than a year earlier. With the continuing large 

 slaughter of cattle and calves, total meat output during the spring and summer of 19k6 



