For the five years 1909-13 the world's wheat crop was ap proximately ioo,000,000 tons. The crops of the years 1923, 1924 and 1925 were 103,- 92,- and 105,000,000 tons, respectively, indi cating little change in total output. Of the wheat harvested in 1925, the United States of America contributed 18.1 million tons, Russia 15.7, Canada 11.2, France 9.0, India 8.8, Italy 6.6, Argen tina 5.2, Spain 4.4, Germany 3.2, Australia, North Africa and Rumania each 2.9, and Hungary 2.0. The most important changes in the output since 1909-13 were a decrease of 3,000,00o tons in Russia, an increase of nearly 6,000,000 tons in the Canadian pro duction, and an increase of about i,000,000 tons in that of the Argentine.
Some of the most important producing countries, however, are large consuming centres, and either have little surplus to export or actually import wheat for home consumption. The greater part of the wheat upon which importing countries depend for their supplies is produced in North America, Argentina and Australia. On the average of the three years 1924-27, the quan tities exported from various sources were as follows:—Canada 7,000,000 tons, United States 5, Argentina 3i, Australia 2i, other countries, al; total 20-i million tons. "Other countries" includes Hungary, the Balkans, Russia, North Africa, India, Chile and Uruguay.
The chief importing countries and the quantities received by each, on the average of the three years 1924-27 were as follows:— Great Britain and Ireland 6,000,000 tons, Italy Germany 2, France ii i and Belgium i. The remaining 7 million tons were imported by the following countries :—Holland, Czechoslovakia, Scandinavia, the Baltic States, Austria, Poland, Switzerland, Japan and Egypt. There are, however, other importing countries includ ing Hungary, the Balkans, Russia, North Africa, India, Chile and Brazil.
Wheat Supply.—The question of when the production of food stuffs will begin to lag behind the increasing needs of the swelling population of the world is not a new one. Since Malthus issued his warnings in the 18th century, the world population has in creased from 850,000,000 to 1,750,000,00o without apparent dan ger of general food scarcity. Sir Daniel Hall, however, in his presi dential address to the agricultural section of the British Asso ciation at Oxford in 1926, questioned the possibility of providing for any much greater increase in the number of people by the same method as had been adopted during the past century, viz., by bringing new land under agriculture. On the basis of 21. acres
per individual, the increase of 5,000,000 in white population alone would require an additional 12,500,000 acres of land brought into cultivation each year—an area one-third the size of England and Wales—and he contended that it is difficult to find land at that rate. The conclusion to which his argument led was that it would be necessary to intensify the production of the land already under cultivation. At the same time, it is highly probable that very considerable areas of hitherto unutilized land will be brought under cultivation as mankind realizes the need for it.
Although no statistical survey of the potential wheat growing possibilities of the world has been made, it is evident that there are still vast areas of uncultivated or semi-cultivated land avail able for future development. At the above mentioned Oxford meeting Lord Bledisloe stated that Canada had a total of 300, 000,000 acres fit for growing wheat—including the recently discovered frost-resistant variety. The present area of wheat in Canada is about 23,000,000 acres. Argentina is another country with great possibilities in wheat production, and Australia has many millions of acres awaiting development. Rapid as has been the expansion of wheat cultivation in Australia, from 3,500,000 acres in 1895 to 11,5oo,000 acres in 1926, only a small portion of the available area has yet been brought into service. It is estimated that the area of land in Australia with climate and soil suitable for wheat growing is not less than 15o,000,000 acres.
While the above figures do not cast the possibility of land shortage into the remote future, they do indicate that there is little likelihood of such a cause affecting the acreage of wheat grown in Britain for many years. Without the addition of new areas and without the full exploitation of intensive production on existing wheat lands, a considerable surplus of wheat is already produced in the chief exporting countries that never leaves the country in which it has been grown. In the years 1926-27, ac cording to the statistics of the International Institute, about 3,300,00o tons available for export were not actually sold for that purpose. On the other hand, it must be recognised that the appearance of over production (circa 1928) is due in part to the fact that large sections of people are not able to exercise their pre-war demand for food, but owing to poverty are living at a lower level of consumption.