534 



Twenty Years' Wheat Imports. [dec, 



TWENTY YEARS' WHEAT IMPORTS. 



The cereal year 1903-4 has proved remarkable mainly for the 

 unusually small proportion of our wheat imports furnished by 

 the United States, although that country has not yet relinquished 

 the first place it has held for so many years as a shipper of 

 wheat and flour. In view, however, of the possibility of the loss 

 of this pre-eminence during the present cereal year, it appears 

 desirable to examine the progress of wheat production in those 

 countries upon which we now mainly rely. 



In 1883 the acreage under wheat in the United States was 

 estimated by the Department of Agriculture at 36,456,000 acres. 

 In 1903 the same authority puts it at 49,465,000 acres, an 

 increase of about 36 per cent. The yield per acre quoted by 

 the Washington Department would also seem to have increased 

 from 12 bushels per acre on the average of the four years 

 1 88 1-4 to 137 bushels on the average of 1900- 1903. During 

 this interval — converting the bushels into cvvt for purposes of 

 comparison — the smallest estimated production has been 185 

 million cwt. in 1885, and the largest 388 million cwt. in 1901. 



With such large variations in the amount produced, the 

 quantities available for export, after the demands of a rapidly- 

 growing population have been met, naturally vary largely ; and 

 our total receipts of wheat and flour (in terms of grain) from the 

 United States have ranged from 27,352,000 cwt. in the cereal 

 year 1888-9 to 66,y ^6,000 cwt. in 1900-1, with, on the whole,, 

 a general tendency towards an increase. 



The United States ship a very large portion of their wheat to 

 this country in the form of flour. This trade does not appear 

 to be liable to quite such large fluctuations as that of the grain 

 itself, although it naturally varies somewhat according to the 

 harvest. The result is that, roughly speaking, the proportion 

 of flour received here from the United States tends to rise 

 when the total exports of grain and flour are small. In no 

 cereal year has this been more conspicuous than in 1903-4, when 



