The Diseases of Animals.
Under the Diseases of Animals Acts 1894 and 1896 weekly returns are issued by the Board of Agriculture of outbreaks of anthrax, foot-and-mouth disease, glanders (including farcy), pleuro-pneumonia, rabies and swine fever in the counties of Great Britain; also monthly returns of outbreaks of sheep-scab.
Cattle plague, or rinderpest, has not been recorded in Great Britain since 1877. In that year there were 47 outbreaks distributed over five counties and involving 263 head of cattle.
The course of foot-and-mouth disease in Great Britain between 1877 and 1905 inclusive is told in Table XX., from which the
TABLE XX.—Outbreaks of Foot-and-Mouth Disease in Great Britain,1877-1905.
Animals attacked.Out OtherYear. Counties. Breaks. Cattle. Sheep. Swine. Animals.
1877 55 858 5,640 7,405 2,099 1878 45 235 912 8,609 245 1879 29 137 261 15,681 5 1880 38 1,461 20,918 9,572 1,886 2 1881 49 4,833 59,484 117,152 6,330 80 1882 49 1,970 23,973 11,412 2,564 1 1883 75 18,732 219,289 217,492 24,332 32 1884 55 949 12,186 14,174 1,860 1 1885 10 30 354 34 30 1886 1 1 10 1892 15 95 1,248 3,412 107 1893 2 2 30 1894 3 3 7 261 1900 9 21 214 50 2 1901 3 12 43 626 1902 1 1 2 118
years 1887 to 1891, 1895 to 1899 and 1903 to 1905 inclusive are omitted, because there was no outbreak during those periods. The disease is seen to have attained its maximum virulence in 1883.
Sheep-scab is a loathsome skin disease due to an acarian parasite. Table XXI. shows the number of outbreaks and the number of counties over which they were distributed from 1877 to 1905. The recorded outbreaks were more numerous in the decade of the 'nineties than in that of the 'eighties, though possibly this may have been due to greater official activity in the later period. The largest number of sheep attacked was
TABLE XXI.—Outbreaks of Sheep-Scab in Great Britain, 1877-1905.
Year. Counties. Outbreaks. Year. Counties. Outbreaks.
1877 77 3214 1890 75 15061880 70 1556 1895 88 30921885 69 1512 1900 78 19391905 73 918
68,715 (in 1877). It is compulsory on owners to notify the authorities as to the existence of scab amongst their sheep. By the Diseases of Animals Act(1903) powers to prescribe the dipping of sheep, irrespective of the presence or otherwise of sheep scab, were conferred upon the Board of Agriculture. An inspector of the board or of the local authority was by the same act authorized to enter premises and examine sheep. Each year the disorder runs a similar course, the outbreaks dwindling to a minimum in the summer months, June to August, and attaining a maximum in the winter months, December to February. It is chiefly in the ``flying'' flocks and not in the breeding flocks that the disease is rife, and it is so easily communicable that a drove of scab-infested sheep passing along a road may leave behind them traces sufficient to set up the disorder in a drove of healthy sheep that may follow. For its size and in relation to its sheep population Wales harbours the disease to a far greater extent than the other divisions of Great Britain.
The fatal disease known as anthrax did not form the subject of official returns previous to the passing of the Anthrax Order of 1886. Isolated outbreaks are of common occurrence, and from the totals for Great Britain given in Table XXII. it would appear that there is little prospect of the eradication of this bacterial disorder.
Glanders (including farcy) was the subject during the twenty-four years 1877-1900 of outbreaks in Great Britain ranging between a minimum of 518 in 1877 and a maximum of 1657 in 1892; in the former year 758 horses were attacked, and in the latter 3001. A recrudescence of the disease marked the closing years of the 19th century, the outbreaks having been 748 in 1898, 853 in 1899 and 1119 in 1900. The counties of Great Britain over which the annual outbreaks have been distributed have ranged between 24 in 1890 and 52 in 1879. As a matter of fact,
TABLE XXII.—Outbreaks of Anthrax in Great Britain,1895-1905.
Animals Attacked.Year. Counties. Outbreaks. Cattle. Sheep. Swine. Horses.
1895 66 434 604 158 140 32 1896 64 488 632 34 200 38 1897 67 433 521 39 284 38 1898 73 556 634 22 161 39 1899 67 534 634 69 253 30 1900 74 571 668 40 204 44 1901 63 651 708 76 152 35 1902 71 678 746 50 192 44 1903 78 767 809 48 234 51 1904 77 1049 1115 62 365 47 1905 84 970 1001 53 210 53
however, the disease is strongly centred upon the metropolitan area, more than half of the outbreaks being reported from the county of London alone.
The rabies order was passed in 1886, and the number of counties in Great Britain in which cases of rabies in dogs were reported in each subsequent year is shown in Table XXIII. In addition there have been some cases of rabies in animals other than dogs. The disease was very rife in 1895, but the extensive application of the muzzling restrictions of the Board of Agriculture was accompanied by so steady a diminution in the
TABLE XXIII.—Cases of Rabies in Dogs in Great Britain, 1887-1902.
Year. Counties. Cases. Year. Counties. Cases.
1887 28 217 1895 29 672 1888 19 160 1896 41 438 1889 20 312 1897 30 151 1890 20 129 1898 10 17 1891 17 79 1899 4 9 1892 12 38 1900 2 6 1893 18 93 1901 1 1 1894 17 248 1902 4 13
prevalence of the disease, that it was thought the latter had been extirpated. The entire revocation of the muzzling order, which accordingly followed, proved, however, to be premature, and it became necessary to reimpose it in the districts where it had last been operative, namely, certain parts of South Wales. No cases were reported in 1903, 1904 or 1905.
Pleuro-pneumonia in Great Britain was dealt with by the local authorities up to the year 1890. Between 1870 and 1889 the annual outbreaks had ranged between a minimum of 312 in 1884 and a maximum of 3262 in 1874, the largest number of cattle attacked in any one year being 7983 in 1872. The largest number of counties over which thin outbreaks were distributed was 72 in 1873. On the 1st of September 1890 the Board of Agriculture assumed powers with respect to pleuro-pneumonia under the Diseases of Animals Act of that year. Their administration was attended by success, for from 192 outbreaks in Great Britain in 1891 the total fell to 35 in 1892 and to 9 in 1893. In the four subsequent years, 1894-1897, the outbreaks numbered 2, 1, 2, and 7 respectively. In January 1898 an outbreak was discovered in a London cow-shed. This proved to be the last case in the 19th century of what at one time had been a veritable scourge to cattle-owners and a source of heavy financial loss.
Between 1879 and 1892 inclusive, administration with regard to swine-fever was entrusted to local authorities. The largest number of outbreaks neported in any one of those years was 7926 in 1885, and the smallest 1717 in 1881. In 1893 the Board of Agriculture took over the management, and Table XXIV. shows the number of counties in which swine-fever existed, the number of outbreaks confirmed and the number of swine slaughtered by order of the board in each year since. The trouble with this disease has been mainly in England, the outbreaks in Wales and Scotland being comparatively few. What are termed ``swine-fever infected areas'' are scheduled by the board when and where circumstances seem to require, and the movement
TABLE XXIV.—Outbreaks of Swine Fever in Great Britain,1894-1905.
Swine slaughtered asOutbreaks diseased, or as having beenYear. Counties. confirmed. exposed to infection.
1894 73 5682 56,296 1895 73 6305 69,931 1896 77 5166 79,586 1897 74 2155 40,432 1898 72 2514 43,756 1899 71 2322 30,797 1900 62 1940 17,933 1901 71 3140 15,237 1902 67 1688 8,263 1903 63 1478 7,933 1904 64 1196 5,603 1905 58 817 3,876
of swine within such areas is prohibited, much inconvenience to trade resulting from restrictions of this kind. Frequently, moreover, the exhibition of pigs at agricultural shows has to be abandoned in consequence of these swine-fever regulations.
The Trade in Live Stock Between Ireland and Great Britain.
The compulsory slaughter at the place of landing does not extend to animals shipped from Ireland into Great Britain, and this is a matter of the highest importance to Irish stock-breeders, who find their best market close at hand on the east of St George's Channel. Table XXV. shows the number of cattle, sheep and pigs shipped from Ireland into Great Britain in each of the fifteen years 1891-1905, the numbers of horses similarly shipped being also indicated. On the average rather more than half the total of cattle is made up of store animals for fattening or breeding purposes, the fattening of Irish stores being a business of considerable magnitude in Norfolk and other counties. Calves constitute about one-twelfth of the total number of cattle.
TABLE XXV.—Imports of Live Stock from Ireland into GreatBritain, 1891-1905.
Year. Cattle. Sheep. Pigs. Horses.
1891 630,802 893,175 503,584 33,396 1892 624,457 1,080,202 500,951 32,481 1893 688,669 1,107,960 456,571 30,390 1894 826,954 957,101 584,967 33,589 1895 791,607 652,578 547,220 34,560 1896 681,560 737,306 610,589 39,856 1897 746,012 804,515 695,307 38,422 1898 803,362 833,458 588,785 38,804 1899 772,272 871,953 688,553 42,087 1900 745,519 862,263 715,202 35,606 1901 642,638 843,325 596,129 25,607 1902 959,241 1,055,802 637,972 25,260 1903 897,645 825,679 569,920 27,719 1904 772,363 739,266 505,080 27,500 1905 749,131 700,626 363,823 30,723
Most of the pigs sent from Ireland into Great Britain are fat, the store pigs accounting for less than one-tenth of the total number. The returns from Ireland under the Diseases of Animals Acts 1894 and 1896 are less significant than those of Great Britain. Thus, in the year ending June 1905, they included 4 outbreaks of anthrax, 219 of swine-fever and 343 of sheep-scab, while there were no cases of rabies. Compared with the export trade in live stock from Ireland to Great Britain the reciprocal trade from Great Britain to Ireland is small, and is largely restricted to animals for breeding purposes. Owing to the reappearance of foot-and-mouth disease in Great Britain early in 1900 the importation of cattle, sheep, goats and swine therefrom into Ireland was temporarily suspended by the authorities in the latter country.
Exports of Animals from the United Kingdom.
The general export trade of the United Kingdom in living animals represented an aggregate average annual value over the five years 1896-1900 of L. 1,017,000 as against L. 935,801 over the five years 1901-1905. To these sums the value of horses alone contributed about three-fourths, Belgium taking more than half the number of exported horses. The export trade in cattle, sheep and pigs is practically restricted to pedigree animals required for breeding purposes, and though its aggregate value
TABLE XXVI.—Quantities and Value of Home-bred Live StockExported from the United Kingdom, 1900-1905.
OtherYear. Horses. Cattle. Sheep. Pigs. Animals.
1900 30,038 2,742 4,934 435 75,642 1901 27,612 1,648 2,761 378 68,012 1902 30,032 2,428 3,596 515 60,941 1903 34,798 2,736 5,579 776 52,095 1904 32,955 3,311 8,142 732 50,873 1905 47,708 3,938 8,378 931 50,307
pounds pounds pounds pounds pounds 1900 681,927 118,337 53,306 3032 45,241 1901 605,699 61,812 25,727 3437 45,476 1902 635,661 96,153 29,069 5053 56,691 1903 734,598 140,244 67,758 7053 48,335 1904 581,339 146,210 88,421 7850 43,868 1905 875,647 190,406 133,413 8024 41,061
is not large it is of considerable importance to stock-breeders, as it is a frequent occurrence for buyers for export—to Argentina, Australasia, Canada, the United States and elsewhere—to bid freely at the sale rings, and often to pay the highest prices, thus stimulating the sales and encouraging the breeding of the best types of native stock. Details for the six years 1900-1905 are summarized in Table XXVI.
Implements and Machinery.
It is the custom of the Royal Agricultural Society of England to invite competitions at its annual shows in specified classes of implements, and an enumeration of these will indicate the character of the appliances which were thus brought into prominence in the latter years of the 19th and the early years of the 20th century. These trials taking place, with few intermissions, year after year serve to direct the public mind to the development, which is continually in progress, of the mechanical aids to agriculture. The awards here summarized are quite distinct from those of silver medals which are given by the society in the case of articles possessing sufficient merit, which are entered as ``new implements for agricultural or estate purposes.''
In 1875, at Taunton, special prizes were awarded for one-horse and two-horse mowing-machines, hay-making machines, horse-rakes (self-acting and not self-acting), guards to the drums of threshing-machines, and combined guards and feeders to the drums of threshing-machines. In 1876, at Birmingham, the competitions were of self-delivery reapers, one-horse reapers and combined mowers and reapers without self-delivery. In 1878, at Bristol, the special awards were all for dairy appliances —milk-can for conveying milk long distances, churn for milk, churn for cream, butter-worker for large dairies, butterworker for small dairies, cheese-tub, curd knife, curd mill, cheese-turning apparatus, automatic means of preventing rising of cream, milk-cooler and cooling vat. A gold medal was awarded for a harvester and self-binder (McCormick's). In 1879, at Kilburn, the competition was of railway waggons to convey perishable goods long distances at low temperatures. In 1880 at Carlisle, and in 1881 at Derby, the special awards were for broadside steam-diggers and string sheaf-binders respectively. In 1882, at Reading, a gold medal was given for a cream separator for horse power, whilst a prize of 100 guineas offered for the most efficient and most economical method of drying hay or corn crops artificially, either before or after being stacked, was not awarded. In 1883, at York, a prize of L. 50 was given for a butter dairy suitable for not more than twenty cows. In 1884, at Shrewsbury, a prize of L. 100 was awarded for a sheaf-binding reaper, and one of L. 50 for a similar machine. In 1885, at Preston, the competitions were concerned with two-horse, three-horse and four-horse whipple-trees, and packages for conveying fresh butter by rail. In 1886, at Norwich, a prize of L. 25 was awarded for a thatch-making machine. In 1887, at Newcastle-on-Tyne, a prize of L. 200 went to a compound portable agricultural engine, one of L. 100 to a simple portable agricultural engine, and lesser prizes to a weighing-machine for horses and cattle, a weighing-machine for sheep and pigs, potato-raisers and one-man-power cream separators. In 1888, at Nottingham, hay and straw presses for steam-power, horse-power and hand-power were the subjects of competition. In 1889, at Windsor, prizes were awarded for a fruit and vegetable evaporator, a paring and coring machine, a dairy thermometer, parcel post butter-boxes to carry different weights. and a vessel to contain preserved butter. In 1890, at Plymouth, competitions took place of light portable engines (a) using solid fuel, (b) using liquid or gaseous fuel, grist mills for use on a farm, disintegrators, and cider-making plant for use on a farm. In 1891, at Doncaster, special prizes were given for combined portable threshing and finishing machines, and cream separators (hand and power). In 1892, at Warwick, the competitions related to ploughs—single furrow (a) for light land, (b) for strong land, (c) for press drill and broad-cast sowing; two-furrow; three-furrow; digging (a) for light land, (b) for heavy land; and one-way ploughs. In 1893, at Chester, self-binding harvesters and sheep-shearing machines (power) were the appliances respectively in competition. In 1894, at Cambridge, the awards were for fixed and portable oil engines, potato-spraying and tree-spraying machines, sheep-dipping apparatus and churns. In 1895, at Darlington, the competitions were confined to hay-making machines and clover-making machines. In 1896, at Leicester, prizes were awarded after trial to potato-planting machines, potato-raising machines and butter-drying machines. In 1897, at Manchester, special awards were made for fruit baskets and milk-testers. In 1898, at Birmingham, a prize of L. 100 was given for a self-moving vehicle for light loads, L. 100 and L. 50 for self-moving vehicles for heavy loads, and L. 10 for safety feeder to chaff-cutter, in accordance with the Chaff-cutting Machines (Accidents) Act 1897. In 1899, at Maidstone, special prizes were offered for machines for washing hops with liquid insecticides, cream separators (power and hand), machines for the evaporation of fruit and vegetables, and packages for the carriage of (a) soft fruit, (b) hard fruit. In 1900, at York, the competitions were concerned with horse-power cultivators, self-moving steam diggers, milking machines and sheep-shearing machines (power and hand). In 1901, at Cardiff, competition was invited in portable oil engines, agricultural locomotive oil engines and small ice-making plant suitable for a dairy. In the years 1903 and 1904 petrol motors adapted for ploughing and other agricultural operations formed a prominent feature of the exhibits.
The progress of steam cultivation has not justified the hopes that were once entertained in the United Kingdom concerning this method of working implements in the field. It was about the year 1870 that its advantages first came into prominent notice. At that time, owing to labour disputes, the supply of hands was short and horses were dear. The wet seasons that set in at the end of the 'seventies led to so much hindrance in the work on the land that the aid of steam was further called for, and it seemed probable that there would be a lessened demand for horse power. It was found, however, that the steam work was done with less care than had been bestowed upon the horse tillage, and the result was that steam came to be regarded as an auxiliary to horse labour rather than as a substitute for it. In this capacity it is capable of rendering most valuable assistance, for it can be utilized in moving extensive areas of land in a very short time. Accordingly, when a few days occur early in the season favourable to the working of the land, much of it can be got into a forward condition, whilst horses are set free for the lighter operations. The crops can then be sown in due time, which in wet years, and with the usual teams of horses kept on a farm, is not always practicable. Much advantage arises from the steam working of bastard fallows in summer, and after harvest a considerable amount of autumn cultivation can be done by steam power, thus materially lightening the work in the succeeding spring. On farms of moderate size it is usual to hire steam tackle as required, the outlay involved in the purchase of a set being justifiable only in the case of estates or of very big farms where, when not engaged in ploughing, or in cultivating, or in other work upon the land, the steam-engine may be employed in threshing, chaff-cutting, sawing and many similar operations which require power. The labour question again became acute in the early years of the 20th century, when, owing to the scarcity of hands and the high rate of wages, self-binding harvesters were resorted to in England for the in-gathering of the corn crops to a greater extent than ever before. For the same reason potato-planting and potato-lifting machines were also in greater requisition.
Agricultural Population and Wages.
The last half of the 19th century witnessed a remarkable diminution of the British rural population. The decrease has assumed serious proportions since 1871, as before that date the supply of rural labour exceeded the demand. A large number of agricultural labourers were thus only in partial employment, and their withdrawal from the land was of minor importance as compared with the shrinkage in the number of those permanently employed. The following tables indicate the extent of rural depopulation:—
Number of ``Persons Engaged in Agriculture'' in the UnitedKingdom, 1851-1901.
1851. 1861. 1871. 1881. 1891. 1901.
3,453,500 3,080,500 2,744,000 2,573,900 2,394,500 2,262,600
The number of ``agricultural labourers and shepherds, which affords a more precise index, declined in a still more marked degree.
1851. 1861. 1871. 1881. 1891. 1901.
1,110,311 1,098,261 923,332 830,452 756,557 609,105
The decrease in the demand for labour is attributable chiefly to the reduction of the cultivated area and the laying down to pasture of land once under the plough, and to the increasing use of agricultural machinery. It may however, be noticed that the period was marked by a steady increase of the cash wages of the farm labourer, as indicated by the following table from the Report on the Earnings of Agricultural labourers issued by the Board of Trade in 1905.
Average Weekly Cash Wages of Ordinary AgriculturalLabourers Employed on Certain Farms in England and Wales.
England and Wales, Eastern counties,Year. 69 Farms. 12 Farms.
s. d. s. d. 1850 9 3 1/2 8 8 1855 10 11 1/2 11 5 1860 10 11 10 8 1865 11 3 10 5 1870 11 10 1/2 11 1 1/2 1875 13 7 12 11 1/2 1880 13 2 1/2 12 1 1885 13 1 11 5 1890 13 0 1/2 11 0 1/2 1895 13 2 1/2 11 0 1900 14 5 1/2 13 1 1/2 1903 14 7 13 2 1/2
(See also ALLOTMENTS AND SMALL HOLDINGS.)
Agricultural Education.
In Great Britain agricultural education as a whole lacks the scope and co-ordination which it has in some continental countries. Centres at which higher agricultural education is given are, however, numerous. The chief are:—
The Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester Aspatria Agricultural College, Carlisle. Tamworth Agricultural College. *Agricultural and Horticultural College, Uckfield, Sussex. *Agricultural and Horticultural College, Holme Chapel, Cheshire. *Midland Agricultural and Dairy College, Kingston, Derby. *Harper-Adams Agricultural College, Newport, Salop. *Lancashire County School, Harris Institute, Preston. *University College of North Wales, Bangor. *University of Leeds. *Armstrong College, Newcastle-on-Tyne. *Cambridge University. *University College, Reading. *South-Eastern Agricultural College, Wye. *University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. *Agricultural Institute, Ridgmont (Bedfordshire County Council). *Essex County Technical Laboratories, Chelmsford. In the year 1904-1905 L. 10,600 was devoted by the Board of Agriculture to agricultural instruction and experiments. Of this sum the greater part was divided amongst the institutions marked with an asterisk in the above list. The first three named are private establishments. The county councils also expend sums varying at their own discretion on instruction in dairy-work, poultry-keeping, farriery and veterinary science, horticulture, agricultural experiments, agricultural lectures at various centres, scholarships at, and grants to, agricintural colleges and schools; the whole amount in 1904-1905 reaching L. 87,472.12 The sum spent by individual counties varies considerably. In 1904-1905 Lancashire (L. 8510), Kent (L. 5922) and Cheshire (L. 4310) spent most in this direction. In some instances colleges are supported entirely by one county, as is the Holmes Chapel College, Cheshire; in others a college is supported by several affiliated counties, as in the case of the agricultural department of the University College, Reading, which acts in connexion with the counties of Berks, Oxon, Hants and Buckingham. The organization and supply of county agricultural instruction is often carried out through the medium of the institution to which the county is affiliated. In Scotland higher agricultural instruction is given at:-
Edinburgh and East of Scotland Agricultural College.Edinburgh University, Agriculture Department.West of Scotland Agricultural College, Glasgow.Aberdeen and North of Scotland Agricultural College.University of St. Andrews.A typical course at one of the higher colleges lasts for twoyears and includes instruction under the heads of soils andmanure, crops and pasture, live stock, foods and feeding,dairy work, farm and estate management and farm bookkeeping,surveying, agricultural buildings and machinery, agriculturalchemistry, agricultural botany, veterinary science and agriculturalentomology. Experimental farms are attached to the colleges.
The facilities for intermediate are far inferior to those for higher agricultural education. Schools for farmers' sons and daughters, and others, answering to the ecoles pratiques d'agriculture (see FRANCE), are few, the principal being the Dauntsey Agricultural School, Wiltshire, the Hampshire Farm School, Basing, and the Farm School at Newton Rigg, Penrith, Cumberland, maintained by the county councils of Cumberland and Westmorland. Occasionally grammar schools have agricultural sides, and in evening continuation schools agricultural classes are sometimes held. Both elementary day schools and continuation schools are in many cases provided with gardens in which horticultmal teaching is given.
In Ireland agricultural education is under the supervision of the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland, founded in 1899. Higher education is given at the Royal College of Science, Dublin; the Albert Agricultural College, Glasnevin; and the Munster Institute, Cork, for female students, where dairying and poultry-keeping are prominent subjects. Winter classes for boys over sixteen years of age are held at centres in some counties, and there are winter schools of agriculture at Downpatrick, Monaghan and Mount Bellew (Co. Galway); while lectures are given at farmers' meetings by itinerant instructors. The Department carries on agricultural experiment-stations at Athenry (Co. Galway), Ballyhaise (Co. Cavan) and Clonakilty (Co. Cork), where farm apprentices are received and instructed.
Agriculture in the United States
Agriculture has been the chief and most characteristic work of the American people, that in which they have achieved the greatest results in proportion to the resources at command, that in which their economic superiority has been most strikingly manifest. In ten years from 1790, the mean population of the period being 4,500,000, 65,000 sq. m. were for the first time brought within the limits of settlement, crossed with roads and bridges, covered with dwellings, both public and private, much of it also cleared of primeval forest; and this in addition to keeping up and improving the whole extent of previous settlements, and building towns and cities, at a score of favoured points. In the next decade, the mean number of inhabitants being about 6,500,000, population extended itself over 98,000 sq. m. of absolutely new territory, an area eight times as large as Holland. Between 1810 and 1820, besides increasing the density of population on almost every league of the older territory, besides increasing their manufacturing capital twofold, in spite of a three years' war, the people of the United States advanced their frontier to occupy 101,000 sq. m., the mean population being 8,250,000. Between 1820 and 1830, 124,000 sq. m. were brought within the frontier and made the seat of habitation and cultivation; between 1830 and 1840, 175,000 sq. m.; between 1840 and 1850, 215,000 sq. m. The Civil War, indeed, checked the westward flow of population, though it caused no refluence, but after 1870 great progress was made in the creation of new farms and the development of old.
That which has allowed this great work to be done so rapidly and fortunately has been, first, the popular tenure of the soil, and, secondly, the character of the agricultural class. At no time have the cultivators of the soil north of the Potomac and Ohio constituted a peasantry in the ordinary sense of that term. They have been the same kind of men, out of precisely the same homes, generally with the same early training, as those who filled the learned professions or who were engaged in manufacturing or commercial pursuits. Switzerland and Scotland have, in a degree, approached the United States in this particular; but there is no other considerable country where as much mental activity and alertness has been applied to the cultivation of the soil as to trade and manufactures.
But even the causes which have been adduced would have failed to produce such effects but for the exceptional inventive ingenuity of the American. The mechanical genius which has entered into manufacturing in the United States, the engineering skill which has guided the construction of the greatest works of the continent, have been far exceeded in the hurried ``improvements'' of the pioneer farm; in the housing of women, children and live stock and gathered crops against the storms of the first few winters; in the rough-and-ready reconnaissances which determined the ``lay of the land'' and the capabilities of the soil; in the preparation for the thousand exigencies of primitive agriculture. It is no exaggeration to say that the chief manufacture of the United States, prior to 1900, was the manufacture of 5,740,000 farms, comprising 841,200,000 acres.
The people of the United States, finding themselves on a continent containing an almost limitless extent of land of fair average fertility, having at the start but little accumulated capital and urgent occasions for the economy of labour, have elected to regard the land in the earliest stages of occupation as practically of no value, and to regard labour as of high value. In pursuance of this view they have freely sacrificed the land, so far as was necessary, in order to save labour, systematically cropping the fields on the principle of obtaining the largest results with the least expenditure, limiting improvements to what was demanded for immediate uses, and caring little about returning to the soil an equivalent for the properties taken from it in the harvests of successive years. But, so far as the northern states are concerned, the enormous profits of this alleged wasteful cultivation have in the main been applied, not to personal consumption, but to permanent improvements,—not indeed to improvements of the land, but to what were still more needed in the situation, namely, improvements upon the land. The first-fruits of a virgin soil have been expended in forms which have vastly enhanced the productive power of the country. The land, doubtless, as one factor of that productive power, became temporarily less efficient than it would have been under a conservative European treatment; but the joint product of the three factors—land, labour and capital—was for the time enormously increased. Under this regimen the fertility of the land, of course, in time necessarily declined, sooner or later, according to the nature of the crops grown and to the degree of original strength in the soil. Resort was then had to new fields farther west. The granary of the continent moved first to western New York, thence into the Ohio valley, and then, again, to the banks of the Mississippi. The north and south line dividing the wheat product of the United States into two equal parts was in 1850 drawn along the 82nd meridian (81 deg. 58 minutes 49 seconds). In 1860 that line was drawn along the 86th (86 deg. 1 minute 38 seconds), in 1870 along the 89th (88 deg. 48 minutes 40 seconds), in 1880 along the 90th (90 deg. 30 minutes 46 seconds), in 1890 along the 93rd (93 deg. 9 minutes 18 seconds), and in 1900 along the 95th (94 deg. 59 minutes 23 seconds). Meanwhile one portion of the inhabitants of the earlier settlements joined in the movement across the face of the continent. As the grain centre passed on to the west they followed it, too restless by character and habit to find pleasure in the work of stable communities. A second portion of the inhabitants became engaged in raising, upon limited areas, small crops, garden vegetables and orchard fruits, and in producing butter, milk, poultry and eggs, for the suoply of the cities and manufacturing towns which had been built up out of the abundant profits of the primitive agriculture. Still another portion of the agricultural population gradually became occupied in the more careful and intense culture of the cereal crops upon the better lands, the less eligible fields being allowed to spring up in brush and wood. Deep ploughing and thorough drainage were resorted to; fertilizers were employed to bring up and to keep up the soil; and thus began the serious systematic agriculture of the older states. Something continued to be done in wheat, but not much. New York raised 13 million bushels in 1850; thirty years later she raised 11 1/2 million bushels; and fifty years later 10 1/2 million bushels. Pennsylvania raised 15 1/2 million bushels in 1850; in 1880 she raised 19 1/2 million bushels; and in 1900 20 1/2 million bushels. More is done in Indian corn (maize), that most prolific cereal, the backbone of American agriculture; still more is done relatively in buckwheat, barley and rye. Pennsylvania, though the eleventh state in wheat production in 1905, stood first in rye and second in buckwheat (ninth in oats) New York was only twenty-first in wheat, but first in buckwheat (tenth in barley), fourth in rye. We do not, however, reach the full significance of the situation until we account for the fourth portion of the former agricultural population, in noting how naturally and fortunately commercial and manufacturing cities spring up in the sites which have been prepared for them by the lavish expenditure of the enormous profits of a primitive agriculture upon permanently useful improvements of a constructive character. These towns are the gifts of agriculture.
Besides the extension of cultivated area, very little was accomplished in the way of agricultural improvement before 1850. With some few exceptions the methods of cultivation were substantially the same as those of colonial days, and were marked by crudeness, waste and a general adherence to rule-of-thumb principles. The year 1850 roughly marks the beginning of a period of improvement and development. The Irish famine of 1846 and the German political troubles of 1848 were followed by an unprecedented emigration to America of highly desirable European labourers, for whom there were cheap and abundant lands. The period from 1850 to 1870 was marked by a steady growth, which, in the western states, was highly stimulated by the Civil War. While this conflict withdrew a certain amount of productive energy from agricultural pursuits, it tended at the same time to increase the value of farm labour and of farm products and to extend the use of machinery in order to offset the deficient labour supply. Agricultural machinery had been employed before the war, but only to a very small extent. In 1864, 70,000 reapers and mowers were manufactured, twice as many as in 1862, and manufacturers were unable to supply the demand. Moreover, in the years 1860, 1861 and 1862 the wheat crops of Great Britain and the European continent were failures, while those of the United States, far removed from the theatre of military operations, were unusually large. The wheat exports to Great Britain in 1861 were three times as great as those of any previous year, and the strong demand from abroad was an additional stimulus to higher prices. In 1864 agricultural prices were from 100 to 200% higher than in 1861, while transportation charges had only slightly advanced and in some instances had actually decreased. In the middle of the war the farmers' profits were normal; toward the end they had increased enormously. This marvellous agricultural prosperity of a nation engaged in one of the world's most formidable wars has no counterpart in modern history. In the decade from 1860 to 1870 there was a steady increase in cultivated area, in agricultural products and in population. The value of the farm lands in the northern states in 1870 exceeded that of 1860 by five dollars an acre. On the other hand, the farm lands of the southern states had declined in value to an almost equal amount; but after 1870 these states also made substantial progress, and in 1880 they produced more cotton than in 1860, when the greatest crop under the slave system was grown.
Since 1870 the most important factors in this development have been the employment of more scientific methods of production and the more extensive use of machinery. The study of soils with a view of adapting to them the most suitable crops and fertilizers; the increased attention given to diversified farming and crop rotation; the introduction and successful growth of new plants (e.g. the date palm in Arizona and California, and tea in South Carolina); tile drainage; the ensilage of forage; more careful selection in breeding; the use of inoculation to prevent Texas fever in cattle and cholera in swine, of tuberculin to discover the presence of tuberculosis in cows, of organic ferments to hasten the progress of butter-making, of the ``Babcock test'' for ascertaining the amount of fat in milk, of fungicides and insecticides to destroy fruit and vegetable pests,—such are but a few manifestations of the spread of scientific knowledge among the farming population of the United States. Nearly every county has some sort of agricultural society; in 1899 there were about 1500 of these organizations, some of which, especially those holding annual fairs, received state aid.
With the improvement in technical processes of production came the conquest of the arid regions of the western states. Irrigation was first employed in the west by the Mormons in 1847; but as late as 1870 only about 20,000 acres had been irrigated. In 1880 the irrigated area was approximately 1,000,000 acres, and in the decade from 1889 to 1899 it increased from 3,631,381 to 7,539,545 acres, a gain of 107.6%. By 1902 there had been a still further increase to 9,478,852 acres, a gain of 25.7% in three years. As many of the streams available for irrigation purposes lie within more than one state, the control of water supply is a proper matter for federal jurisdiction, and in June 1902 Congress provided for an extensive system of irrigation works in thirteen states and three territories. The cost of the work is defrayed from the proceeds of the sales of government lands within the states and territories affected by the act. The measure is not paternalistic; the settlers on the lands, which are divided into farms of not less than 40 nor more than 160 acres, are required to make annual payments to the government in proportion to the water service they have received, until the original cost of the works has been met. The first of these works, the so-called Truckee-Carson project, of Nevada, was completed in June 1905, and at the end of that year eight projects, in as many different states, were under construction; bids had been received for three more, and the seven others had received the approval of the secretary of the interior. With these initial undertakings it was estimated that 1,000,859 acres could be reclaimed. In addition to supplying the soils with water, means have been found of ridding them of their alkali, or of rendering it harmless; and this is an element of reclamation hardly less important than irrigation itself. A third step in the reclamation of desert lands is arid farming—that is, the adapting to the soils of crops that require a minimum amount of moisture, and the utilization, to the fullest possible extent, of the meagre amount of rainfall in the region. Experiments conducted in this direction in Utah produced promising results.
The development of farming machinery has kept pace with the general progress in scientific agriculture. Although numerous patents were issued for such machinery before 1850, its use, with the exception of the cotton gin, was very restricted before that date. Even iron ploughs were not in general use until 1842, and a really scientific plough was practically unknown before 1870. Thirty years later the large farms of the Pacific states were ploughed, harrowed and sowed with wheat in a single operation by fifty-horse-power traction engines drawing ploughs, harrows and press drills. Since 1850 there has been a transition from the sickle and the scythe to a machine that in one operation mows, threshes, cleans and sacks the wheat, and in five minutes after touching the standing grain has it ready for the market. Hay-stackers, potato planters and diggers, feed choppers and grinders, manure-spreaders, check-row corn planters and ditch-digging machines are some of the common labour-saving devices. By the 28th of August 1907 the United States Patent Office had issued patents for 13,212 harvesting machines, 6352 threshers, 6680 harrows and diggers, 9649 seeders and planters, and 13,171 ploughs. In the manufacture of agricultural machinery the United States leads the world. The total value of the implements and machinery used by farmers of the United States in 1880 was $406,520,055; in 1890 $494,247,467; in 1900 $761,261,550, a gain in this last decade of 54%. The total value of the implements and machinery manufactured in 1850 was $6,842,611; in 1880 $68,640,486; in 1890 $81,271,651; in 1900 $101,207,428.These figures, however, are a very poor indication of the actual use of machinery, on account of the rapid decrease in prices following its manufacture on a more extensive scale and by improved methods.
The effects of the new agriculture are apparent from the following figures: By the methods of 1830 it required 64 hours and 15 minutes of man-labour and cost $3.71 to produce an acre of wheat; by the methods employed in 1896 it required 2 hours and 58 minutes of man-labour and cost 72 cents. To produce an acre of barley in 1830 required 63 hours of man-labour and cost $3.59; in 1896 it required 2 hours and 43 minutes and cost 60 cents. An acre of oats produced by the methods of 1830 required 66 hours and 15 minutes of man-labour and cost $3.73; the methods of 1893 required only 7 hours and 6 minutes and cost $1.07. With the same unit of labour the average quantity of all leading crops produced by modern methods is about five times as great as that produced by the methods employed in 1850, and the cost of production is reduced by one half. From 1880 to 1900 the average number of acres of leading crops per male worker increased from 23.3 to 31.0, or 34%; the number of horses per worker from 1.7 to 2.3, or 35%; and the value of agricultural product per person employed from $286.82 to $454.37, or 58.4%.
There are numerous other factors that have operated to the benefit of the agriculturist. Increased transportation facilities and lower freight charges have widened his market. The processes of canning, packing, preserving and refrigerating have produced a similar effect, and have also provided a means for the disposal of surplus perishable products that otherwise would be lost. The utilization of by-products, as, for example, the conversion of cotton seed into oil, fertilizers and food for live stock, has become another source of profit.
Great economic and social changes have resulted from this progress. There has been a great division of labour in agriculture. Makers of agricultural implements, of butter and cheese, cotton ginners, grist and wheat millers, are now classed in the United States census reports as manufacturers, but all their work was once done on the farm. The farmer is now more of a specialist and more dependent on other industries than formerly. He has changed from a producer for home consumption or a local market to a producer for a world market. Unfortunately, his knowledge of economic laws has lagged behind his progress in scientific agriculture. The farming class at times have experienced periods of great depression, largely on account of their inability to adjust their crops to changing conditions in the world's markets, and in such cases have been prone to seek a remedy in radical legislation. Periods of agricultural discontent at different times have been marked by the political activity of the ``Grangers'' and of the ``Farmers' Alliance.'' and even by the formation of new political parties such as the Greenback party in 1874 and the Populist or People's party in 1892—whose strength lay mainly in the agricultural states. The new industrial conditions that produced combinations among manufacturers were much slower in their effect upon the farming element, but gradually led to increasing co-operation and to the organization of the growers of various commodities for marketing their crops. The fruit growers of California and the tobacco growers of Kentucky have furnished interesting examples of such organizations. Under the improved conditions there is less drudgery on the farm; the farmer does more work, produces more, and yet has more leisure than formerly. Better roads, rural free mail delivery, telephone and electric lines are removing the isolation of country life, and to some extent are diminishing the attractions of the cities for the rural population.
Covering as it does the breadth of the North American continent, with 3,000,000 sq. m. of land surface, not including Alaska and the islands, of which over 800,000,000 acres are in farms and over 400,000,000 in actual cultivation, representing every variety of soil and all the climatic life zones of the world, except the extreme boreal and the hottest tropical, the United States affords an important subject of study in respect of agriculture. Its cotton, wheat and meat are large factors in all markets,and its many other agricultural products are distributed throughout the civilized world. To the student the equipment and methods of agriculture in the United States form as interesting a subject of examination as do its resources and production. In quantity, distribution and inter-relation of heat and moisture —the chief factors in agricultural production—the United States is greatly blessed. We find in this vast territory all the agricultural belts mapped by the biologist, producing all varieties of cereals, fruits and breeds of live stock, whilst all kinds of soils, adapted to different crops, are spread out at all altitudes from 8000 ft. down to sea-level.
The story of the vast and varied agriculture of the United States can be outlined by extracts from the figures published by the Census, the Agricultural and other government departments.
Farms.
As a result of the great supply of available land the number of farms in the United States increased between 1850 and 1900 from 1,449,073 to 5,739,657; their total acreage increased from 293,560,614 to 841,201,546 acres; their improved acreage increased from 113,032,614 to 414,793,191 acres; and their unimproved13 acreage from 180,528,000 to 426,408,355 acres. Table XXVII. exhibits the increases of number of farms, total and improved acreage by decades.
The largest percentage of increase of improved land was 50.7, from 1870 to 1880; the lowest was in the decade 1860 to 1870, the period of the Civil War, and was 15.8. The chief cause of this wonderful development of agriculture is the large area of cheap public lands which has been available for immigrants and natives alike. Up to 1906, under the Homestead Act of the 20th of May 1862, the number of entries, both final and pending, covered 185,385,000 acres. Between 1875 and 1905 the public and Indian lands sold for cash and under homestead and timber culture laws, as well as those allotted by scrip, granted to the colleges of agriculture and mechanic arts and other institutions, and by military bounty land warrants, and selected by states and railroad corporations, covered about 430,000,000 acres. In addition to this, the states and railroad corporations sold a large amount of land to farmers of which we have no accurate record. This vast territory, greater
TABLE XXVII.—Percentage of Increase of Number and Acreage ofFarms by Census Decades.
Number of Acreage.The United States. Farms. Total. Improved.
1850 to 1860 41.1 38.7 44.3 1860 to 1870 30.1 0.1 15.8 1870 to 1880 50.7 31.5 50.7 1880 to 1890 13.9 16.2 25.6 1890 to 1900 25.7 35.0 16.0
1850 to 1900 296.0 186.5 267.1
in extent than Germany and France combined, was added to the farms of the country in thirty years. In many cases railroad building has made the settlement of the public lands possible for the first time, and the building of branch lines, by providing means for transporting products to market, has greatly facilitated the acquisition of other lands. The mileage of railways increased 310.7% between 1870 and 1905. The interesting fact is that this increase corresponds geographically to the increase in farms.
The agricultural statistics do not include any farm of less than three acres unless it produced at least $500 worth of products in the preceding year. The census of 1900 showed that the average size of farms was 146 acres, or nine acres more than in 1890 and 57 acres less than in 1850. This fact, however, does not indicate a general tendency toward the consolidation of holdings. The increase in the average size of farms for the whole country is due to the extension of grazing lands in the Rocky Mountain region and in Texas, and to the enlargement of the wheat fields in the Mississippi valley. On the other hand, in the southern states there has been a steady breaking up of holdings and decrease in the average size of farms since the close of the Civil War. In the New England states, where dairying has become the leading agricultural industry, there was an increase of 2 acres in the size of farms during the decade 1890-1900. This increase was more than offset by the decrease in the Atlantic states from New York to Maryland inclusive (2.8 acres), where there has been a subdivision of farms following the increased attention given to the growing of fruits and vegetables for cities. The same tendency is noted in the states of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. As will be seen from Table XXVIII., the average farm, which steadily diminished in size from 1850 to 1880, increased between 1880 and 1900.
TABLE XXVIII.—Average Acreage of Farms and Proportion ofImproved Land Therein.
Proportion ofWhole Farm. Improved Land.
1850 202.6 38.5 1860 199.2 40.1 1870 153.3 46.3 1880 133.7 53.1 1890 136.5 57.4 1900 146.6 49.3
The acreage of North Atlantic farms decreased from 112.6 in 1850 to 95.3 in 1890, and increased in 1890-1900 to 96.5 acres. In the north Atlantic states the average was 376.4 acres in 1850, and there has been steady decrease, so that in 1900 it was 108.4, or one-third less than the average for the entire country. In the north central states the averages of 1850 and 1900 were nearly the same (143.3 and 144.5 respectively), with the minimum (121.9 acres) in 1880. The south central states averaged 291 acres in 1850, 321.3 in 1860, 144 in 1890, and 155.4 in 1900. The maximum decade for the western states was that ending in 1850 (694.9 acres), and the minimum 1880 (312.9); and the average in 1900 was 386.1 acres.
Table XXIX. gives the number of farms, together with their distribution, under different forms of tenure in the years 1880, 1890 and 1900.
The steady drift towards farm tenancy of late is believed to be injurious to production; but it is impossible to prove this, so great has been the aggregate increase in products.
The number of persons engaged in agriculture as a business in 1900 was 10,381,765, or 36% of all persons in gainful occupations. It is interesting to note that 977,336 of these were women. This is an increase of 2,667,890 persons over 1880. Thus, if the farm family is the same size as that of the remainder of the population—it is probably slightly larger—the agricultural population would be 36% of the whole. Statisticians usually put it at 40%, and this is probably more nrealy correct (Table XXX.).
The wages paid farm labourers, as ascertainted by the Department of Agriculture, are rather low compared with the average wages of labour, but not lower than the wages of other unskilled labour. The average monthly wage of the agricultural labourer, without board, was $19.50 in 1870, $16.42 in 1880, $18.33 in 1890, $17.70 in 1895, and $20.23 in 1899, when the maximum for any state was $45.10 in Nevada, the minimum $10.06 in South Carolina. the wages of the American farm labourer were at this last date named (1899) higher than for any other farm labourer save in Canada and the British colonies of Australasia; though lower than wages paid in American cities, they have greater purchasing power. J.R. Dodge, in ``Farm Labour in the United States'' (vol. xi., Report of Industrial Commission on Agriculture, &c., 1901), says: ``In addition to wages the married labourer has a house free of rent, a garden, firewood, pasturage and other perquisites. The enterprising labourer usually becomes a tenant and afterwards a farm-owner.''
Value of farms and products.
The figures for farm capital and the value of agricultural products are so vast that it is extremely difficult to put them in an intelligible form. The farm capital of the United States reported by the census of 1900 reached $20,514,002,000, a sum more than four times the capital invested in manufactures, the main classes being, in round numbers:—Land, fences and buildings, $16,674,690,000; machines
TABLE XXIX.—Number of Farms of Specified Tenure.
Number of farms operated byNumber of Cash ShareYear. Farms. Owners. 14 Tenants. Tenants. 15
1880 4,008,907 2,984,306 322,357 702,2441890 4,564,641 3,269,728 454,659 880,2541900 5,737,372 3,712,408 751,665 1,273,299
Percentage of farmsCash ShareYear. Owners. Tenants. Tenants.
1880 74.5 8.0 17.51890 71.6 10.0 18.41900 64.7 13.1 22.2
and implements, $761,262,000; live stock $3,078,050,000. The products of the farms in the census year 1899 were valued at $4,739,119,000. Between 1850 and 1900 the aggregate farm capital increased 416%. The greatest increase of farm capital was between 1850 and 1860, 101%; the next was the decade 1880-1890, when the increase was 32%. Between 1890 and 1900 the increase was 28%.
TABLE XXX.—Number of Persons of Ten Years of Age and over in the different Agricultural Pursuits in 1900.
Occupation. Total Persons.
Dairymen and women 10,875Farmers and farm superintendents 5,674,875Farm labourers 4,410,877Gardeners, nurserymen and viticulturists 61,788Lumbermen and raftsmen 72,020Stock-raisers, herders, &c 84,988Turpentine-farmers and labourers 24,737Wood-choppers 36,075Other pursuits 5,530Total 10,381,765
The growth of farm are and of capital invested in agriculture was followed by a proportionate increase in the chief crops (Table XXXI.).
The distinguishing feature of the period 1870-1880 was the rate of increase of barley, Indian corn, wheat and oats. Since 1870 the production of nearly all of the farm crops increased more rapidly than the population, the most absolute proof of the substantial prosperity of the people. The increase in population for the fifty years from 1840 to 1890 was 267%; from 1870 to 1880, 30%; from 1880 to 1890, 25%; from 1890 to 1900, 21%; but the food and other supplies far exceeded the demands of even this great population.
TABLE XXXI.—Production of Certain Farm Crops from 1870 to 1905—Millions of Bushels.
Indian Corn. Wheat. Oats. Barley. 1870 1094 235 247 26 1880 1717 498 418 45 1890 1489 399 523 67 1900 2105 522 809 58 1905 2707 693 953 136
Table XXXII. gives important facts with regard to the cereal production of the United States between 1870 and 1905.
The average farm price of wheat declined, as is shown in that table, from $1.05 per bushel for the decade 1870-1880 to 65.3 cents for the period 1890-1899. The farm prices of the other cereals declined less during the thirty years. Corn declined from an average farm price of 42.6 cents per bushel for 1870-1880 to 34.4. cents in 1890-1899. The average production per acre shows nothing conclusice with regard to the fertility of the soil of the country. The expansion of the crop area usually causes a lowering of the average yield per acre by distributing the culture, fertilizers, &c., over more surface. Likewise the contraction of crop area will usually increase the average yield per acre of the entire country.
TABLE XXXII.—Average Yield and Value of Cereal Crops in the UnitedStates, by Periods of Years, 1870-1905.
Average Average Average AverageFarm Price Yield Per Farm Price Yield PerPeriod. per Bushel. Acre. per Bushel. Acre.
Dollars. Bushels. Dollars. Bushels.
Indian Corn. Wheat. 1870 to 1880 0.426 27.1 1.05 12.4 1880 to 1889 .393 24.1 .827 12.1 1890 to 1899 .344 24.1 .653 13.1 1900 to 1905 .440 24.9 .706 13.6
Barley. Rye.1870 to 1880 0.738 22.1 0.701 14.11880 to 1889 .589 21.7 .622 11.91890 to 1899 .433 23.3 .522 14.01900 to 1905 .433 25.9 .570 15.7
Oats.1870 to 1880 0.353 28.4 0.715 17.71880 to 1889 .309 26.6 .642 12.81890 to 1899 .277 26.2 .507 16.81900 to 1905 .318 30.7 .588 17.9
The average yield of wheat per acre was 12.4 bushels in the decade 1870-1880, and 13.1 in the period 1890-1899; of Indian corn, 27.1 in 1870-1880, and 24.1 in 1880-1899 continuously. Oats fell off from 28.4 in 1870-1880 to 26.2 bushels per acre in 1890- 1899. The averages for the years 1900-1905 show an increase over the previous decade both in yields and (with the exception of the price of barley) in prices of all the cereals.
The agricultural returns for 1890-1905 may be taken as an illustration of the cereal production of the United States. The figures for wheat, oats and Indian corn are presented in Tables XXXIII., XXXIV. and XXXV.
TABLE XXXIII.—Acreage, Production, Value, Price and Exports ofWheat in the United States in 1890-1905.
AverageAverage Farm PriceYield per per Bushel, Farm Value,Year. Acreage. Acre. Production. 1st Dec. 1st Dec.
Acres. Bushels. Bushels. Cents. Dollars. 1890 36,087,154 11.1 399,262,000 83.8 334,773,678 1891 39,916,897 15.3 611,780,000 83.9 513,472,711 1892 38,554,430 13.4 515,949,000 62.4 322,111,881 1893 34,629,418 11.4 396,131,725 53.8 213,171,381 1894 34,882,436 13.2 460,267,416 49.1 225,902,025 1895 34,047,332 13.7 467,102,947 50.9 237,938,998 1896 34,618,646 12.4 427,684,346 72.6 310,602,539 1897 39,465,066 13.4 530,149,168 80.8 428,547,121 1898 44,055,278 15.3 675,148,705 58.2 392,770,320 1899 44,592,516 12.3 547,303,846 58.4 319,545,259 1900 42,495,385 12.3 522,229,505 61.9 323,515,177 1901 49,895,514 15.0 748,460,218 62.4 467,350,156 1902 46,202,424 14.5 670,063,008 63.0 422,224,117 1903 49,464,967 12.9 637,821,835 69.5 443,024,826 1904 44,074,875 12.5 552,399,517 92.4 510,489,874 1905 47,854,079 14.5 692,979,489 74.8 518,372,727
Domestic Exports,including Flour,Fiscal YearsYear. beginning 1st July.
Bushels. 1890 106,181,316 1891 225,665,812 1892 191,912,635 1893 164,283,129 1894 144,812,718 1895 126,443,968 1896 145,124,972 1897 217,306,005 1898 222,694,920 1899 186,096,762 1900 215,990,073 1901 234,772,516 1902 202,905,598 1903 120,727,613 1904 44,112,910 1905 ..
The acreage and production of wheat have steadily increased. The acreage in Indian corn, the great American crop, reached its highest in 1902, 94,043,613 acres, and its production its highest figure in 1905, 2,707,993,540 bushels.
TABLE XXXIV.—Acreage, Production, Value, Prices, Exports and Importsof Oats in the United States in 1890-1905.
AverageAverage Farm PriceYield per per Bushel, Farm ValueYear. Acreage. Acre. Production. 1st Dec. 1st Dec.
Acres. Bushels. Bushels. Cents. Dollars. 1890 26,431,369 19.8 523,621,000 42.4 222,048,486 1891 25,581,861 28.9 738,394,000 31.5 232,312,267 1892 27,063,835 24.4 661,035,000 31.7 209,253,611 1893 27,273,033 23.4 638,854,850 29.4 187,576,092 1894 27,023,553 24.5 662,036,928 32.4 214,816,920 1895 27,878,406 29.6 824,443,537 19.9 163,655,068 1896 27,565,985 25.7 707,346,404 18.7 132,485,033 1897 25,730,375 27.2 698,767,809 21.2 147,974,719 1898 25,777,110 28.4 720,906,643 25.5 186,405,364 1899 26,341,380 30.2 796,177,713 24.9 198,167,975 1900 27,364,795 29.6 809,125,989 25.8 208,669,233 1901 28,541,476 25.8 736,808,724 39.9 293,658,777 1902 28,653,144 34.5 987,842,712 30.7 303,584,852 1903 27,638,126 28.4 784,094,199 34.1 267,661,665 1904 27,842,669 32.1 894,395,552 31.3 279,900,013 1905 28,046,746 34.0 953,216,197 29.1 277,047,537
Domestic Exports,including Oatmeal, Imports duringFiscal Years Fiscal YearsYear. beginning 1st July. beginning 1st July.
Bushels. Bushels. 1890 1,382,836 41,848 1891 10,586,644 47,782 1892 2,700,793 49,433 1893 6,290,229 31,759 1894 1,708,824 330,317 1895 15,156,618 66,602 1896 37,725,083 893,908 1897 73,880,307 25,093 1898 33,534,264 28,098 1899 45,048,857 54,576 1900 42,268,931 32,107 1901 13,277,612 38,978 1902 8,381,805 150,065 1903 1,960,740 183,983 1904 8,394,692 55,699 1905 .. ..
Producing as the United States does so much more than its people can consume, its exports form a large percentage of some of the crops, as Table XXXVI. shows.
Large portions of some of these crops, like Indian corn and oats, are exported in the form of animals and animal products (meats, lard, hides, &c.). The hay crop is almost entirely used in this way, and the tendency is to convert more and more of these crops into these higher-priced products. Still, the time is far distant when domestic consumption will come anywhere near overtaking domestic production, especially of wheat and the other cereals. The certain extension of acreage with the growth of demand and price, the increased use of agricultural implements, and the improvement of methods will be sure to keep up a large surplus for export for many years to come. The Department of Agriculture has found that for home use there were required per head 5.5 bushels of wheat, 28.6 bushels of Indian corn, and 10.7 bushels of oats, the computations being made from the figures for population, production and exports for 1888-1892; in 1905, 6.15 bushels of wheat and wheat-flour, 28.59 bushels of Indian corn and corn-meal. The following number of acres in these crops was required, therefore, to supply the home demand for 1888-1892:—0.43 of an acre in wheat, 1.1.5 acre in corn, and 0.43 acre in oats per head of the population. Taking the year
TABLE XXXV.—Acreage, Production, Value, Prices and Exports of IndianCorn in the United States in 1890-1905.
AverageAverage Farm PriceYield per per Bushel,Year. Acreage. Acre. Production. 1st Dec.
Acres. Bushels. Bushels. Cents. 1890 71,970,763 20.7 1,489,970,000 50.6 1891 76,204,515 27.0 2,060,154,000 40.6 1892 70,626,658 23.1 1,628,464,000 39.4 1893 72,036,465 22.5 1,619,496,131 36.5 1894 62,582,269 19.4 1,212,770,052 45.7 1895 82,075,830 26.2 2,151,138,580 25.3 1896 81,027,156 28.2 2,283,875,165 21.5 1897 80,095,051 23.8 1,902,967,933 26.3 1898 77,721,781 24.8 1,924,184,660 28.7 1899 82,108,587 25.3 2,078,143,933 30.3 1900 83,320,872 25.3 2,105,102,516 35.7 1901 91,349,928 16.7 1,522,519,891 60.5 1902 94,043,613 26.8 2,523,648,312 40.3 1903 88,091,993 25.5 2,244,176,925 42.5 1904 92,231,581 26.8 2,467,480,934 44.1 1905 94,011,369 28.8 2,707,993,540 41.2
Domestic Exports,including Corn-Farm Value Meal, Fiscal YearsYear. 1st Dec. beginning 1st July.
Dollars. Bushels. 1890 754,433,451 32,041,529 1891 836,439,228 76,602,285 1892 642,146,630 47,121,894 1893 591,625,627 66,489,529 1894 554,719,162 28,585,405 1895 544,985,534 101,100,375 1896 491,006,967 178,817,417 1897 501,072,952 212,055,543 1898 552,023,428 117,255,046 1899 629,210,110 213,123,412 1900 751,220,324 181,405,473 1901 921,555,768 28,028,688 1902 1,017,017,349 76,639,261 1903 952,868,801 58,222,061 1904 1,087,461,440 90,293,483 1905 1,116,696,738 ..