FOOD AND POPULATION. 



this deficit, growingoutofau acreage 10,000,000 to 12,000 000 acres too small for the world's 

 requirements, is augmenting at the rate of more than 2,000,000aeres yearly, and will so long 

 as the additions to the world's wheat area are, as of late years, less than 400,000 acres per 

 annum. 



There also exists a very great deficit in the rye acreage, the extent of which it is 

 difficult to measure, as during the period when wheat was over-abundant and rye grow- 

 ing relatively scarce wheat was largely substituted for the deficient rye (as is now being 

 done in Germany and Russia), but we get some idea of this deficit when we as- 

 certain that in 1870, wheu the per capita quota for the world's bread-eaters was 

 .427 of an acre of wheat, that of rye was .304 of an acre and is now reduced 

 to .238 of an acre, the per capita quotji of wheat and rye then being .731 of 

 «n acre as against .636 of an acre in 1890, the reduction in the per capita acreage — as com- 

 pared with that of the early part of the eighth decade— of the two grains being .095 of an 

 acre, or 13 per cent., and indicating a shortage of 43,000,000 acres unless in the meantime 

 other forms of food have been substituted for the deficient wheat and rye, and such has 

 doubtless ; been the case to some extent in Russia, and possibly other countries, where 

 maize, millet and other cheap forms have been substituted, but such substitutions can not 

 have been considerable, as European production of no one of the food staples has kept 

 pace with the increase of European population, as is clear from the following table, show- 

 ing European acreages in the various staples at the end the last three decennial periods 

 and the aggregates and percentages of increase and decrease: 



* Indicates Increase and t decrease. tSpelt Is a variety of wlieat and maslln is rye and wheat sown trgether^ 

 It may be assumed that, for some time, the bread-eating populations will— unless 

 food becomes exceedingly scarce and high — increase nearly as fast as during the ninth de- 

 cide, but to be clearly on the safe side, the increase, during the remainder of the century, 

 will be estimated at 11 per cent, and for the ensuing ten years at 10 per cent., and estimat. 

 ing that the per capita requirements will equal those of the earlier years of the eighth de- 

 cade, when the price of bread-stu&s was 85 per cent, greater than in 1890, population and 

 additional acreage requirements for 1900 and 1910 are estimated at the numbers stated in 

 the following table: 



Granting the substantial correctness of the preceding estimate, it follows that the 

 world must, within ten years, add 68,000.000 acres to the food producing areas of the tem- 

 perate zones, or reduce the standard of living in the same ratio as the added acreage falls 

 short of the requirements, and must add many — 30 to 40 — millions to make good the ex. 

 isting deficit in wheat and rye areas. In the next decade another 68,000,000 acres must be 

 added, hence it is safe to say that during the next twenty years the additions to the acre- 

 age must be two-thirds greater than during the last twenty, aud such additions, if we are 

 ^o continue the present standard of living, can not be less tha 166,000,000 acres. 



