76 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



Sugar, molasses, and sirup together take the lead in value of 

 agricultural imports. Coffee is next in importance. Fruits 

 are both exported and imported in large quantities. This is 

 due to the fact that the United States produces a surplus of 

 certain kinds of fruits, namely, dried apples, prunes, raisins, 

 apricots, and peaches, which are exported, whereas we produce, 

 for example, less than we consume of bananas, lemons, and 

 pineapples. 



To become a self-sufficing nation we would have to reduce 

 our grain crops and our cotton crops and produce more cane 

 and beets for sugar and molasses, and either reduce our coffee 

 consumption or learn to grow great quantities in the potential 

 coffee regions of the United States. Our area is broad and in- 

 cludes a very great variety of soils and climate, and yet there 

 would be undoubtedly a much smaller amount of agricultural 

 products available for consumption in this country under a 

 self-sufficing economy than under a world-wide commercial 

 economy. 



The experimental and educational method of stimulating the 

 introduction of new crops has proved important in this country. 

 For many years the Secretary of Agriculture made large ex- 

 penditures to stimulate the beet sugar industry in the United 

 States. There were those who pointed out that the high cost 

 of labor put this country at a distinct disadvantage over the 

 beet sugar producers of northwestern Europe. Others pointed 

 out that in the corn belt, in particular, the beet would be unable 

 to compete with corn for the reason that the area on the surface 

 of the earth capable of corn production is very small compared 

 with the area capable of beet production, and for this reason 

 the relative prices of corn and sugar on the world market will 

 tend to be such as will enable corn to drive sugar out under 

 conditions of open competition, and that there are other crops 

 which we can grow which will add more to the well-being of 

 the people. These views seemed justified and were true under 

 the assumption of world peace. But, as a matter of fact, the 

 stimulus resulting from government activity established a beet 

 sugar industry which was tottering to a fall under free trade, 



