Wheat  Prices  and  the  World’s  Production. 
105 
Fourth  period. — The  last  period  of  rising  prices  coincides 
with  the  falling  off  of  supplies  frona  the  United  States  of 
America  and  the  opening  up  of  other  sources  of  supply.  By 
the  beginning  of  the  last  decade  of  the  century,  the  United 
States  was  becoming  much  more  densely  populated,  and  her 
growing  town  population  consumed  very  large  quantities  of 
her  own  cereal  products.  A demand  for  wheat  had  begun  to 
appear  in  Germany,  where  the  growth  of  an  industrial 
population  and  a rise  of  the  standard  of  living  both  helped 
to  make  her  home  production  insufficient  for  her  needs. 
On  the  other  hand  the  filling  up  of  America  caiised  a 
rise  in  rent  and  an  increase  in  the  cost  of  production.  The 
use  of  land  for  building  and  for  such  agricultural  purposes  as 
cattle  farming,  beet-root  growing,  &c.,  began  to  drive  wheat 
farming  further  west,  or  else  caused  it  to  be  carried  on  under 
more  expensive  conditions.  Wheat  production  thus  for  the 
moment  received  a check,  and  even  began  to  decline. 
Thus  we  find  a diminution  of  the  world’s  crop  at  a time 
when  the  number  of  wheat  consumers  was  growing  by  leaps 
and  bounds.  In  1871,  according  to  Sir  William  Crookes,  the 
bread  eaters  of  the  world  numbered  371,000,000.  In  1881 
they  had  grown  to  416,000,000.  They  increased  to  473,000,000 
in  1891,  and  516,000,000  in  1898. 
Up  to  the  nineties  the  world’s  crop  increased  as  rapidly 
as  the  demand,  but  from  1894  the  supply  began  to  fall  short. 
The  following  table,  which  is  illustrated  by  Chart  C,  gives 
the  world’s  wheat  crop  in  millions  of  quarters  in  each  year 
from  1888  onwards.  The  figures  show  the  maximum  point 
reached  in  1894,  and  the  subsequent  decline  in  the  next  few 
years. 
1888 
Million  quarters 
. 283 
1899 
Million  quarters 
. 328 
1889 
. 273 
1900 
. 332 
1890 
. 288 
1901 
. 347 
1891 
. 309 
1902 
. 396 
1892 
. 314 
1903 
. 407 
1893 
. 319 
1904 
. 395 
1894 
. 327 
1905 
. 416 
1895 
. 305 
1906 
. 429 
1896 
. 298 
1907 
. 393 
1897 
. 286 
1908 
. 397 
1898 
. 366 
1909 
The  check  to  production  and  the  increase  of  demand  was 
noticed  by  Sir  William  Crookes,  who  in  an  address  to  the 
British  Association  in  1898,  raised  the  alarm  of  a world’s  wheat 
famine.  But  the  situation  had  also  struck  a young  operator 
on  the  Chicago  Board  of  Trade.  Seeing  the  inadequacy  of  the 
world’s  supply,  Mr.  Leiter  took  the  opportunity  to  make  his 
famous  corner  in  American  spring  wheat.  The  clique  of  bulls 
