76 THE THIRD POWER 



can, the other producing countries of the world of 

 bread grains never have enough to supply the de- 

 mand. Every year Europe requires about two hun- 

 dred millions of bushels of wheat from this country. 

 Without this, values in the thickly populated coun- 

 tries of Europe would probably rise to fabulous 

 prices, and we predict famines would be frequent. 

 Claims may be made that production in other coun- 

 tries can be greatly increased. In some cases this is 

 true, but at the same time population and consump- 

 tion will be increasing. Consumption has been in- 

 creasing for a few years, faster than production. 

 Witness the fact that three years ago this country 

 had a visible supply of forty-seven million bushels, 

 while at this writing (August, 1903) it is down to 

 twelve millions. The same proportions held true 

 in foreign countries. This in face of the fact that 

 the crop of wheat in 1902 was the largest ever 

 grown, and in 1901 was nearly as large. The fig- 

 ures clearly prove that consumption has been greater 

 than production for the last three years, even when 

 production was unprecedentedly large. We can not 

 hope to keep up the recent rate of production of 

 bread grain except through more intensive farming 

 or the opening of new territory. This latter is prob- 

 lematic. But suppose the area could be augmented 

 by another empire equal in size and productive abil- 

 ity to our Mississippi valley. Has not all our central 

 west and northwest been put under cultivation with- 

 in the memory of present men ? Has not the world 



