THE WHEAT SUPPLY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1750, 15 May 1913, Page 8

THE WHEAT SUPPLY.

SOME INTERESTING FIGURES. Some interesting information regarding the wheat supplv is giveu in tho statistics of tho British Board of Agriculture. A comparison is made of the extension of the wheat area of tho Empire and tho growth of population since the census of .1901. Taking the United Kingdom, Australia,' Canada, India, and New Zealand as representing the British Empire, a marked increase lioth of wheat area and population is shown in 1911. In each of tho great divisions of the Empire the exthe wheat area has been much greater than tho increase of the population.' In 1901 there were nearly 35 million acrcs, or about one-oighth of an acre for each of the 283 million inhabitants'; in 1911-there were 50 million acres, or about one-sixth of an acre' for each of the 302 million inhabitants. If tho whole of . this acreage .wore as productive as tho two million acres in the United Kingdom it would very nearly suffice for the total requirements of the present population, assuming that they were all wheat eaters and that their average consumption per head was the samo as that of tho inhabitants of tho United Kingdom.' These assumptions aro, of course, far from tho facts at present. The average yield per acre of wheat, which in the United Kingdom is 33 bushels, is in Australia 12 bushels, in Canada 17i bushels, in India 11} bushels, and m New Zealand (with much tho smallest acreage) 29 bushels.