Corn Crop

There is an old Chicago adage to the effect that the corn crop walks to market on four legs--referring to the fact that most of our U.S. corn is regularly fed to hogs and other livestock. Last year, the corn crop was distributed as follows: Livestock. 2,550,000,000 bu.: food. 100,000,000 bu.: industry, 75,000,000 bu.; exports, 21,000,000 bu.; seed, 20,000,000 bu.; and miscellaneous, 155,000,000 bu. As the above figures indicate, practically the entire output is consumed at home. This year, corn, almost alone among our staple cereals, has failed to be produced in adequate quantities. Not only is there an apparent shortage in amount, but much of the supply is of poor quality and unmerchantable. The current crop is estimated at 2,477,538,000 bu.; with carryover on the farms of 109,021,000 bu., this makes a total prospective supply of 2,586,559,000 bu. of all kinds of corn, good and bad. The preceding year the crop amounted to 3,046,387,000 bit., of which 3,022,031,000 was actually used up. Facing a normal consumption of over 3 billion bu., therefore, we have a supply of about 2 billion bu. of all kinds of corn, and of about 1 3/4 billion bu. of merchantable corn. The price of corn has risen sensationally, but from the existing statistical situation some experts look for higher rather than lower corn prices in the near future.