8 BULLETIN 696, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
only about a fifth of the corn produced enters into trade channels. 
It is customary to say that the domestic corn is "marketed on the 
hoof," that the price of the United States corn crop affects the meat 
markets of the world, rather than the international prices of grain. 
The total consumption for human food, industrial uses and the feed- 
ing of work animals represents only a small share of the crop. For- 
eign harvests and prices do not enter as a regulating factor in years of 
domestic shortage since only relatively small foreign supplies are 
available. A surplus in adjoining countries would ordinarily have 
an effect upon domestic prices, as in the case of Canadian wheat and 
oats, but Canada and Mexico import corn from the United States. 
DOMESTIC DEMAND AND CONSUMPTION VARIABLE. 
The high degree of elasticity in the quantities of corn consumed 
is a notable feature of its use. The annual variation in the United 
States consumption for the six years 1911 to 1916 ranged, roughly, 
from 200,000,000 to 700,000,000 bushels. This fact is suggestive 
when considered in connection with the comparatively stable de- 
mand for other farm products, such as wheat or cotton, under nor- 
mal conditions. Market prices, not only of corn but of live stock 
and live-stock products, govern the extent to which corn is fed to 
live stock, is used for human consumption within the United States, 
or is exported. The prices of other feeds enter also herein. The 
quantity fed to live stock (about three-fourths of the total produc- 
tion) varies greatly according to market conditions affecting each 
class of stock, and the quality of the crop. Especially is this true 
with regard to swine, whose yearly consumption averages about 
7,000,000 bushels, and the number of which varies from year to year. 
High prices or a poor quality of corn result, in their first effect, in an 
unloading of hogs upon the market. The quantity used for in- 
dustrial purposes is relatively stable, but represents a small fraction 
of the production. 
The relative consumption in one section compared with another 
also varies greatly. By States, the per capita production varies 
from less than 1 bushel to 159 bushels. The per capita consump- 
tion for all purposes varies almost as widely. An average of 
nearly one and one-quarter billion bushels, or a little less than 
half the total production, is consumed in the North Central States 
for feeding purposes alone. Comparatively trifling quantities are 
consumed west of the corn belt. In general, outside of the corn States, 
a much smaller proportion is devoted to feeding purposes, because of 
deficient supply and relatively high price. 
