458 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXI. Xo. 534. 



the position of one of the noted English 

 statisticians, Mulhall, that wood prices had 

 fallen and would continue to fall, because 

 the supply of timber was practically inex- 

 haustible. The data upon which the Eng- 

 lish authority based this conclusion were 

 shown to be worthless. The speaker 

 pointed out the difficulties of securing use- 

 ful data, from which to diagnose the past 

 and predict the future of price movements, 

 and explained that, and why, prices for 

 lumber did not really represent prices for 

 wood or stumpage. From careful compila- 

 tions of the experiences of European forest 

 administrations it was shown that wood 

 prices had for fifty to seventy years in- 

 creased at a compound rate of not less than 

 1.5 per cent, and for the last ten years at 

 a rate of over 2 per cent., being now at least 

 double what they were fifty years ago. 

 Such data as were available for the United 

 States shoAved the same tendency and 

 about the same rate ; and as the knowledge 

 of the condition of timber supplies in the 

 world was growing, wood prices would in- 

 crease at an accelerated rate 'until that 

 level has been reached which forces reduc- 

 tion of consumption.' The influence of 

 the increase of wood prices on forest treat- 

 ment was discussed at length, as tending 

 to supplant the rough exploitation which 

 alone appeared profitable at present, by 

 forestry, i. e., care for the reproduction of 

 a new wood crop. 



Tlte Present Demands and Economic Uses 

 of Wood. "Wm. R. Lazenby, Ohio State 

 University, Columbus, Ohio. 

 This paper will appear in full in the 



Proceedings of ilie Ohio State Forestry 



Society. 



The Wheat Situation in the United States. 

 John Cassel Williams, Washington 

 Correspondent, New York Journal of 

 Commerce. 



Since the season of 1901 there has been 

 a falling off in the production of wheat in 

 this country, while the increase in consump- 

 tion has gone steadily forward until the 

 point has been reached at which, tempo- 

 rarily, at least, domestic consumption is 

 about equal to the domestic supply and 

 only a small surplus is available for ex- 

 portation. The final figures of the De- 

 partment of Agriculture for the wheat crop 

 of 1904 issued by Chief Statistician Hyde 

 put the total yield at 552,399,516 bushels, 

 against 637,822,000 bushels in 1903, and 

 748,400,000 bushels in 1901. Though in 

 some years there have been considerable 

 quantities of wheat carried over from one 

 season to another in the visible supplies 

 and in the stocks estimated as remaining 

 in the hands of farmers, the exports of 

 wheat and wheat flour have, from year to 

 year, afforded an approximate measure of 

 the excess of production in the United 

 States over the domestic demand. 



Owing to the falling off in production 

 and to the increase in domestic consump- 

 tion, exports of wheat from the United 

 States have temporarily, at least, prac- 

 tically ceased and exports of wheat flour 

 have been greatly reduced in volume. 



The American miller, endeavoring to re- 

 tain his foreign market, is hampered, not 

 only by the shortage of the domestic supply 

 of wheat, but, also, by the inferior quality 

 of a large proportion of that grown dur- 

 ing the past season. The evidence sub- 

 mitted to the treasury department by 

 millers who have asked for an allowance 

 of drawback on the exportation of flour 

 made wholly or in part from imported 

 wheat shows that, while in former years 

 an average of four bushels and twenty 

 pounds of wheat have been required to 

 make a barrel of flour, the average quantity 

 of domestic wheat required this year is 

 four bushels and fifty pounds. Complaint 



