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tion is seasonal, and because of inevitable fluctuations in the 

 weather, it is always desirable to have more food available 

 than is currently consumed. This is particularly needed in 

 wartime. 



Only a small proportion of the crop is carried from one 

 year to another. There are two good reasons for this: food 

 supplies are generally perishable, and it is expensive to carry 

 them from one crop year to the next. The nation lives largely 

 from hand to mouth and depends upon current production 

 for the bulk of its food. 



One method of measuring the size of our stocks of food 

 would be to compare them with our consumption. In 1939 

 the consumption of food in the United States aggregated 93 

 billion pounds of dry matter. The stocks of food exclusive 

 of wheat at the end of the 1939 season were less than 6 bil- 

 lion pounds. These stocks were only about six per cent of 

 the annual consumption, representing only about twenty- 

 two days' supply. 



In 1939 the nation consumed over 4 billion pounds of fats 

 and oils. Stocks at the end of the year were sufficient for 

 about ninety days. The same year the nation consumed more 

 than 11 billion pounds of dry matter in the form of eggs and 

 dairy products. Stocks of these products were sufficient for 

 only six days' consumption. The stocks of fresh and cured 

 meats and poultry were 204 million pounds. To the layman 

 this sounds like an enormous amount, but it was equivalent 

 to only eight days' consumption. There were fifty-two days' 

 supply of wheat and only twenty-two days' supply of all 

 other foods, such as meat, sugar, dairy products, and the 

 like. This was the situation when the surplus idea was 

 rampant. 



These stocks were sufficiently large to be important in 

 equalizing the month-to-month and season-to-season varia- 

 tions in production and requirements. Obviously, however, 



