OURyearsago thiscountry wassurfeited with such carbohydrate crops as corn, wheat, barley, oats, and the minor grains. Surpluses of sucrose, glucose sirups, and molasses also existed. The supply of these various products was more than enough to meet dl1 the food, feed, and industrial requirements of the United States. As a result of the war this whole surplus situation has been profoundly altered, and serious shortages of Carbohydrate taw materials have developed in spite of the Fact that our harvests have been bountiful and agricultural production has been ata high peak. This shortage of carbohydrate raw materials has been due to a number of factors: (1) an augmented domestic demand for feeds, food, alcohol, and starch) (2) the exportation of cereals, starch, glucose, and alcohol for Lend-lease purposes) and (3) a sharp decrease in imports of cane sugar, molasses, and tdpioci starch. A serious shortage of cane sugar and molassesdeveloped shortlyafter we entered the war, primarily because of the lack of shipping space. Rationing of sugar w a s instituted, and this curtailment of the use of sugar increased the demands for other sweetening agents such as corn and malt sirups. Because of the .augmenteddemand for its products, the corn wet-milling industry operated at full capacity, utilizing in 1943 45 million bushels of corn in excess of that used in 1940. The fermentation industries were likewise operating at full capacity because of the enormous increase in the demand for alcohol for the manufacture of synthetic rubber and explosives. Expanding food requirements led to an increase in production of hogs, poultry, and dairy p r o d u p and, at the same time, rapidly reduced the surplus of feeds. Since the price relation between corn and hogs favored the production of hogs, most of the corn was retained on farms for use as animal feed, and the amount sold on the cash markets rapidly dwindled. The shortage of corn became so critical last summer that this grain was allocated to users by the War Food Administration.
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H o g chipper used by Forest Products Laboratory in experiments on wood saccharification
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