AGRICULTURAL SURVEY OF EUROPE*. GERMANY 109 
In the future Germany will undoubtedly continue to offer an 
important market for American raw cotton, although it is probable 
that the quantity of German purchases will be below the pre-war 
level for several years at least. The German people will probably 
return in a few years to their normal consumption of cotton goods, 
which are likely to be supplied by German mills largely from Ameri- 
can raw cotton. It is not at all certain that the export trade will 
return to its pre-war volume; but, since the United States remains 
the world's chief source of raw cotton for which the aggregate 
demand is as great as ever, the decrease in German demand merely 
means that there is a compensating strengthening of demand in 
countries such as France and Japan, in which the cotton industry 
has expanded since the war. 
MEATS AND FATS 
The German market for American pork products is better than 
before the war. Even during the period of greatest economic demor- 
alization in Germany, imports of pork products were exceptionally 
heavy. This apparently paradoxical situation arose from the fact 
that fats were necessities of life and American pork fats were the 
cheapest fats obtainable. The German hog population diminished 
greatly during the war, and the scarcity of feedstuffs has made it 
difficult to fatten hogs to the same weights as before the war. Butter 
has been scarce and too expensive for the average family, so the 
cheaper American lard has been used as a substitute. With the 
economic revival which followed the stabilization of the currency in 
December, 1923, and the subsequent acceptance of the Dawes plan, 
there was an immediate resumption of imports of butter from Den- 
mark, which soon rose to the pre-war level. It seems probable that 
if economic improvement continues, more butter, margarine, kettle- 
rendered lard, and domestic pork will be used and consequently that 
the per capita consumption of American bacon and refined lard will 
decline toward its pre-war level. This will still mean an important 
market for lard, but there is little chance for a continuance of an 
important trade in American bacon. 
Although the German market for American meats and fats has 
been relatively good in recent years, it should be noted that in rela- 
tion to the purchasing power of the dollars received for these export 
products the trade is really no better than in 1913. The value of 
German imports of American pork products in 1924 was 149 per cent 
of the value of the same products in 1913, while the index number of 
wholesale prices in 1924 was 150. 
BREADSTUFFS 
German imports of bread grains and flour from the United States 
in the calendar year 1923 were approximately equal in value to the 
corresponding imports for 1913, but the volume of these imports was 
somewhat smaller. In 1924, because of a shortage in the German 
wheat and rye crops, together with a good crop of wheat in the 
United States, there was a sharp increase both in value and volume. 
Total imports of wheat in 1925 will probablv be somewhat heavier 
than usual. In the five months January to May, imports of wheat 
amounted to 20,100,000 bushels, as compared with 4,800,000 bushels 
in the same months of 1924. Of this, 11,700,000 bushels were im- 
ported from the United States and 5,300,000 bushels from Argentina. 
