10 BULLETIN 696, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTURE. 



farms where it is produced, and a small percentage of sales to local 

 feeders and local markets. The major part of the crop never leaves 

 the farms on which it is raised. The census for 1909 reported 23 

 per cent of the corn crop as having been sold. In that year, there- 

 fore, 77 per cent of the corn grown was retained on the farms where 

 it was produced. This fraction includes the soft and unmerchantable 

 corn. In the same year (1909) 18 per cent of the total harvest was 

 shipped out of counties where grown; thus the difference between 

 this 18 per cent and the 23 per cent sold off the farms represents 

 local sales, or corn sold but not shipped out of counties where grown. 

 This amounted in that year to but 5 per cent. 



The farm consumption approximates 83.4 per cent; it consists of 

 the small fraction constituted by com shipped from markets and 

 farms to farms, and, chiefly, of the home-grown product. Horses and 

 mules, as one item, and swine, each absorb more than one- fourth of 

 the total production, three-fourths of a billion bushels each. These 

 items are highly variable, as stated, depending upon size of crop, 

 costs of other feeds and market prices of live stock. 



The urban consumption is more stable. The items in Table 1, 

 listed under corn disposed of in cities, total only 16.6 per cent of the 

 national production, or about a half billion bushels. To obtain 

 aggregate urban receipts, there should be added some quantities re- 

 shipped from market to farms, which are included in this statement 

 under farm consumption. 



The largest item in city consumption consists of the corn ground 

 in merchant flour mills (180 million bushels or 6.5 per cent of the 

 crop) . In the Census for the year 1909, 80 per cent of the corn enter- 

 ing such mills was reported to be " manufactured chiefly for human 

 consumption," and 20 per cent, or 42 million bushels, " manufactured 

 chiefly for live stock." Additional quantities enter small custom 

 mills, no recent data for which are available ; this appears, however, 

 to be included in the estimates of farm use. In the Census of 1909 it 

 was reported to be 85 million bushels. Quantities fed to live stock in 

 cities are of some importance, constituting about 5.4 per cent of pro- 

 duction. Industrial uses absorb many million bushels, but amount to 

 only a small percentage of the crop. Excepting its use in the manu- 

 facture of hominy, industrial demands furnish a market for poorer 

 qualities of corn. 



