FOREIGN TRADE IN FARM AND FOREST PRODUCTS. 25 



decade for which exports of wheat and flour from the United States 

 can here be given begins with 1791. The total amount exported in 

 the decade was 4,259,285 bushels of wheat and 7,032,865 barrels of 

 flour. Combining the two, on a basis of 5 bushels of wheat to a 

 barrel of flour, we get an annual average for the decade of 3,942,361 

 bushels of wheat. In the decade 1801-1810 the exports amounted to 

 3,418,761 bushels of wheat and 9,099,100 barrels of flour, making 

 an annual average of 4,891,426 bushels of wheat, while in the next 

 decade, 1811-1820, the wheat amounted to only 1,026,572 bushels, 

 exclusive of the exports in 1814, and the quantity of flour exported 

 reached a total of 10,199,104 barrels, giving a total of 52,022,092 

 bushels for the decade, or an average of 5,202,209 bushels yearly. 



Out of 142,163,031 bushels of domestic wheat, including flour, ex- 

 ported from the United States between October 1, 1820, and June 30, 

 1846, the United Kingdom took 23,981,000, or 16.9 per cent, while out 

 of the 51,011,699 bushels exported between July 1, 1846, and June 30, 

 1849, the United Kingdom received 26,998,000 bushels, or 52.9 per. 

 cent. During the long period of practically free trade in breadstuff's 

 covering every fiscal year from July 1, 1849, to June 30, 1914, inclu- 

 sive, the United Kingdom has taken 53.7 per cent of all the wheat 

 and flour exported from the United States, leaving only 46.3 per 

 cent for all other countries. Only nine times since 1820 have the 

 exports of wheat to France exceeded 10,000,000 bushels, while those 

 for Germany since the German Empire came into existence as such 

 never reached that amount until 1899, for which year the quantity 

 was 10,311,450 bushels, and only seven times in all has the limit of 

 10,000,000 bushels been exceeded. 



Corn. — Doubtless the most striking feature of our corn industry 

 is that the enormous production is absorbed almost entirely by the 

 home demand. Relative to its importance as the greatest of all our 

 grain crops, it is exported in comparatively small amounts. In spite 

 of an increase since 1897 of 25 million acres in the area planted, ex- 

 ports, which in that year attained the maximum of 179 million 

 bushels, have since almost steadily declined, and in 1913 amounted 

 to only 49,064,967 bushels, valued at $28,800,544, while for 1914 there 

 was a tremendous drop of nearly 40 million bushels in our exports 

 of corn, as we exported that year only 9,380,855 bushels, valued at 

 $7,008,028. This drop was probably due to a heavy , shortage in the 

 domestic crop, the 1913 yield being only 2,447,000,000 bushels, com- 

 pared with 3,125,000,000 in the preceding year. 



Of all the corn produced in the United States and exported there- 

 from in the form of grain during the 64 fiscal years from July 1, 

 1850, to June 30, 1914, no less than 50.3 per cent was exported to the 

 United Kingdom. The total quantity exported during that period of 

 4251°— Bull. 296—15 '-4 



