FOOD AND POPULATION. 



the world increased, during the eighth decade at the rate of 11.4 per cent., while the 

 means of subsistence, as measured by the area devoted to the productiou of grain and 

 potatoes, increased 12 5 per cent., as set forth in the following table: 



TUE WORLD'S AREA IN FOOD STAPLES. 



Products. 





1880 



.\cres. 



Wheat 15.S,3«2,000, 



Bye ' 109,076,000, 



~ " 4o.386,000 



78,700,000 

 84,178,000 



Acres. 



20 Yrs Incr'se 



aud Decrease 



in Acres 



Barley , 



Oits 



Miiize, etc. 



Potatoes ' 21,7«o,000 



177,310,000 

 10S,34o,000 



43,480,0(10; 



90,903 000 



110. .377,000 



23,616,000 



Totals I 492,467,000 



554,031,000 



181,474 000 

 108,364,000 



44,650,000 

 104,888.000: 

 127,832,000. 



25,839.000, 



28,112,000 



712,0(l0t 



736.000t 



26,188,000* 



43,654.000* 



4.074,000* 



593 047,000, l(.i0,580,000t 



20 Yr.'!. Incr'se 



and Decrease 



per cent. 



11.8* 



1.6t 

 33 3* 

 52.0* 

 18.7* 



20. 4t 



• indicates Increase and t decrease. tNet increase. 



In twenty years we find an increase ot 20.4 percent, in the aggregate acreage of all 

 food staples as against an increase of 27 per cent, in the bread-eating populations and 

 taking into consideration only the two principal bread-making grains — wheat and rye — 

 the increase has been but 10.4 per cent., from which it appears that during the twenty' 

 years the bread-eaters have increased more than two and a half times as fast as the mate 

 rial from which bread is made. 



During the eighth decade, however, the wheat acreage increased 15.6 per cent, as 

 against an increase in the consuming element of 11.4 per cent, and the result was an ex. 

 cessive production of wheat, a part of which was consumed to make up for the diminish- 

 ing production of rye and the remainder accumulated as a reserve which has sufficed to 

 tide over later years, when both acreage and current production have been less than 

 current nte Is. 



During the earlier j-ears of the ninth decade the acreage in food staples continued 

 to increase more rapidly than population, although the rate of such increase was progress- 

 ively lessening, and about the middle of the decade fell in the rear of the population 

 rate, which progressed from the 11.4 per cent, of the eighth decade to 14 per cent., the ag" 

 gregate increase being 56,000,000 as against 41,000,000 of the preceding ten years. 



From the foregoing tables it api^ears that while population has, by peace and an 

 abundant supply of the cheapest food ever known, been stimulated to such an increase 

 the area devoted to staple food crops has of late, ceased to expand in like proportion and 

 the acreage, relatively to population, has shrunken to le.ss than that of the earlier years of 

 the eighth decade, when the bread-making grains bore a price 85 per cent, higher than 

 that obtaining in 1890. 



At the close of the eighth decade the per capita quota of land in wheat was .443 of 

 an acre, but at the close of the ninth decade the bread-eaters had so increased that the 

 acreage of wheat, upon which each unit of the population could draw, had diminished to 

 .898 of an acre, being seven per cent, less than the .427 of an acre quota of 1870, when the 

 price was 85 per cent, higher. The reasons for this abnormal condition of the supply, as 

 related to the exceptionally low prices prevailing from 1884 to 1890 inclusive, are to be 

 <ound in that the world's wheat acreage (as measured by the area per capita in cultivation 

 during the earlier years of the eighth decade when prices were such as to indicate that 

 the supply was neither over-abundant nor deficient) was excessive in ISSO by some 

 6,4(0 000 and had been excessive for some years prior thereto and so continued up toabout 

 the middle of the ninth decade, such excess gradually disappearing— as population in- 

 creased without a proportionate increase in wheat acreage — and consumption overtaking 

 current production, such productiou has since been deficient with the exception of year* 

 when, as in 1887, the yield has been much above the average. 



During the existence of an excessive acreage accumulations of bread-stufl's — large 

 In the aggregate — were made in mill, warehouse and farm gi-anery. the world over, and in 

 the years of excessive area the product of one harvest (.ver-lai)ped the succeeding one in 

 such a way that even two such short (world) crops as those of 1S.S5 and 1886 had no eflect 



