crop to Great Britain and buys of Russia to
fill the deficiency. Russia consumes but very little of her wheat-crop;
it is nearly all sold to the states of western Europe. All Europe
consumes about one billion seven hundred and ten million bushels, but
produces about one billion two hundred and fifty million; the remainder
is supplied by the United States, India, Argentina, Africa, and
Australia.

[Illustration: WHEAT IN UNITED STATES]

In the United States the great bulk of the crop comes from the upper
Mississippi valley and Pacific coast States. About one-third is
consumed where it is grown; more than one-third is required for the
populous centres of the east; a little less than one-third is exported,
of which about ninety per cent. goes to Europe.

[Illustration: WHEAT PRODUCTION]

Much of this, especially the Pacific coast product, is sold unground,
but each year an increasing amount is made into flour. The flour
manufacture of the United States aggregates somewhat more than
160,000,000 barrels yearly--the output of 16,000 flour-mills; the
Pillsbury mills of Minneapolis alone have a capacity of 60,000 barrels a
week. In Europe the Hungarian mills and their output of Bohemian flour
are the chief competitors of the United States.

[Illustration: WHEAT]

The wheat-crop of the Pacific coast has usually been a factor by itself.
On account of the absence of summer rains, the kernel is both plump and
hard. After the threshing process it is sacked and stored in the fields
in which it has grown.[26] Heretofore much of the sacked wheat has been
shipped to European markets by the Cape Horn route, but in late years a
yearly increasing amount is made into flour and sold in China, Japan,
and Siberia. In 1900 nearly two million barrels were thus sent.

East of the Rocky Mountains, after the grain is harvested much of it is
sold to dealers whose storage elevators[27] are scattered all over the
wheat-growing region, and at all great points of shipment, such as
Duluth, Minneapolis, Buffalo, and the eastern seaports. Before the grain
is transferred to the elevators it is inspected and graded, and the cars
which contain it are sealed. This wheat constitutes the "visible
supply." All the business concerning it is transacted by means of
"warehouse receipts," that have almost the currency of ready money.
Banks loan money on them almost to their market value.

Under normal conditions, the cost of growing and harvesting a bushel o