The item in the official returns that figures largest for exports is
that which is set down as BREADSTUFFS. This term includes wheat, corn,
oats, rye, and other grains, and the flours or meals made from these.
For the year ending June 30, 1898, our total export of breadstuffs was
$334,000,000. This is an enormous increase over the year before, when
the amount was not quite $200,000,000.[5] A large part of this
increase was due to the high prices for breadstuffs which prevailed in
the European markets during the past autumn and winter, but a part of
the increase was due to an increased acreage and to good crops. The
main products that composed this vast exportation were: wheat,
$146,000,000; wheat flour, $70,000,000; corn, $75,000,000; cornmeal,
$2,000,000; oats and oatmeal, $22,500,000; rye and rye flour,
$9,000,000, and barley, $5,500,000. The magnitude of our breadstuffs
exportation can be judged from the magnitude and importance of our
exports of wheat and flour as compared with those of other countries.
Our average WHEAT EXPORT is two and one half times that of Russia,
four and one third times that of Argentina, five and one half times
that of India, and almost twenty-five times that of Canada, while it
is also four and one half times that of all other countries in the
world combined. Our FLOUR EXPORT ($70,000,000) is without a rival. The
export from Canada is now not much more than $1,500,000 a year, and
the export from Hungary not more than $2,500,000 a year, and these
are the only countries with which we have to compete in the western
European markets. Still it must be remembered that Hungarian flour,
owing to the dryness of the climate in which it is made, is the best
in the world, while the flour of Canada made from Manitoba hard wheat
is alike unsurpassed. As a rule much more than one half of our total
exports of breadstuffs goes to Great Britain. Germany is our next best
customer, but her imports of our breadstuffs are not more that a fifth
to a tenth of those of Great Britain. France comes next, but her
importation of our breadstuffs is still more uncertain, ranging from a
half to a hundredth of that of Great Britain. Our other principal
customers for our breadstuffs are (1) the other states of Europe, (2)
Canada, (3) the countries of South America, (4) the West Indies, (5)
Hongkong, (6) the islands of the Pacific, and (7) British Africa. Our
exportation of breadstuffs to Japan and China (direct)[6] is still
inconsiderable. Since the close of the War of the Rebellion our
exportation of wheat has increased thirtyfold and our exportation of
flour fifteenfold. Our chief wheat-growing States are Minnesota and
California, each with about 50,000,000 bushels a year; then Kansas,
North Dakota, Illinois, and South Dakota, each with about 30,000,000
bushels a year; and then Ohio, Indiana, Nebraska, Pennsylvania,
Missouri, and Michigan. The best wheat is grown in the deep black
soil, rich in organic matter, of the Red River valley of Minnesota,
and in the dry, sunny climate of California. The total yield for 1897
was 530,000,000 bushels, which was about 70,000,000 bushels more than
recent averages. The estimate for this year (1898) is over 600,000,000
bushels, which was also the yield for 1891. The total area sown to
wheat was for several years about 35,000,000 acres, but the average
is now increased to about 40,000,000 acres. Large as is the gross
production of our wheat, however, the yield per acre is somewhat
small, being only from 12 to 13 bushels as against 18 bushels in
Ontario, 20 in Manitoba, 26-1/2 in New Zealand, and 30 in Great
Britain. In fact, the wheat yield per acre is lowest in the United
States of all the great wheat-producing countries of the world, except
Australia (7 to 11-1/2), Italy (10-1/2), Germany (10-1/4), India
(9-1/4), and Russia (8). But far greater than our production of wheat
is our production of CORN. Of corn we have nearly 85,000,000 acres
under cultivation and a production of nearly 2,500,000,000 bushels.
Our export of corn, however, is proportionately not large, and figures
only to about 210,000,000 bushels a year, with a value (including
cornmeal) of about $76,000,000. As is well known, CHICAGO is the great
commercial centre of the continent for breadstuffs. NEW YORK is the
great port of export for the Atlantic seaboard, SAN FRANCISCO for the
Pacific seaboard. DULUTH is the great receiving point for the wheat of
the Red River valley and the northern Mississippi. BUFFALO is the
great point where the wheat brought down from Chicago, Duluth, etc.,
in barges, "whale-backs," and immense propellers, is trans-shipped to
the small boats of the Erie Canal for carriage to New York.
MINNEAPOLIS is the great milling point of the continent, its mills
being the largest and most capacious in the world.