ld's wheat crop.

As a producer of corn the United States is without a peer. The world's
corn crop in 1916 was 3,642.1 million bushels. Two-thirds of this crop
(2,566.9 million bushels) was produced in the United States.

The position of the United States as a producer of corn is almost
duplicated in the case of cotton. The _Statistical Abstract_ published
by the British Government (No. 39, London, 1914, p. 522) gives the
world's cotton production as 21,659,000 bales (1912). Of this number the
United States produced 14,313,000--almost exactly two-thirds. British
India, which ranks second, reported a production of 3,203,000 bales.
Egypt was third with 1,471,000 bales.

About one-tenth of the world's output of wool is produced in the United
States. World production for 1917 is placed at 2,790,000 pounds.
(_Bulletin_, National Association of Wool Manufacturers. 1918, p. 162.)
Australia heads the list with a production of 741.8 million pounds.
Russia, including Siberia, comes second with 380.0 million pounds. The
United States is third with 285.6 million pounds and Argentina fourth
with 258.3 million pounds.

The United States leads the world in timber production. "Last winter we
estimated that the United States has been cutting about 50 per cent of
the total world's supply of lumber." (Letter from Chief of Forest
Investigation. U. S. Forest Service. Oct. 11, 1919.) The same letter
gives the present annual timber cut. The United States 12.5 billion
cubic feet; Russia 7.1 billion cubic feet; Canada 3.0 billion cubic
feet; Austria-Hungary 2.7 billion cubic feet.

A third of the iron ore produced in the world in 1912 came from the
United States. The world's production in that year was 154.0 million
tons (_British Statistical Abstract_, No. 39, p. 492). The United States
produced 56.1 million tons or 36 per cent of the whole; Germany produced
32.7 million tons; France 19.2 million tons; the United Kingdom 14.0
million tons. No other country is reported as producing as much as ten
million tons.

The position of the United States as a producer of iron and steel was
greatly enhanced by the war. _The Daily Consular and Trade Reports_
(July 9, 1919, p. 155) give a comparison between the world's steel and
iron output in 1914 and 1918. In 1914 the United States produced 23.3
million tons of pig iron; Germany produced 14.4 million tons; the United
Kingdom 8.9 million tons, and France 5.2 million tons. The United States
was thus