No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 1031 



and market gardens made use of glass in (lie propagalidii of Mowers, 

 plants oi' vegetables. They had an ai<'a under glass of 5,210,827 

 stjuare I'eet nniUing \\illi tiie (>,()().S,783 s(jiiare feet belonging to the 

 florists' establishments, a total of 11,811),G1() stjuare feet of hind under 

 glass. 



Nursery Products. 



The total value of nursery stock sold in is!)!) was frj41,(K{2, re- 

 poited by the operators of 280 farms and nurseries. Of this number, 

 Do deiived their principal income from the nursery business. They 

 had 5,801 acres of land, valued at |()88,035; buildings worth |;2oG,755; 

 inq)Uments and machinery worth |2L,775; and live stock worth |23,- 

 nO-t. Their sales of nursery products amounted to |4r)7,820, and sales 

 of other products to f-i.") JOo. They expended for labor $150,305, and 

 for fertilizers, .'f;j),050. Including value of products fed to live stock, 

 the average gross income per farm reporting was $5,421. 



Labor and Fertilizers. 



The total expenditure for labor on farms in 1899, including the 

 valuv of board furnished, was |1G,647,730, an average of $74 per farm. 

 Th(-. average was highest on the most intensively cultivated farms, 

 being |1,583 for nurseries, $700 for florists' establishments, $141 for 

 vcj.!;( table farms, $120 for tobacco farms, $113 for dairy farms, $89 for 

 hay and grain farms, $88 for fruit farms, $70 for sugar farms, and 

 $50 for live-stock farms. ''Managers" expended an average per farm 

 of $334; "cash tenants," $90; "share tenants," $87; and "owners," 

 $62. White farmers expended $74 per farm and colored farmers, $45. 



Fertilizers purchased in 1899 cost $4,085,920, an average of $21 per 

 farm, and an increase since 1890 of 38.5 per cent. The average was 

 $95 for nurseries, $57 for florists' establishments, $46 for vegetable 

 farms, $33 for tobacco farms, $25 for hay and grain farms, $22 for 

 dairy farms, $18 for fruit farms, $16, for live-stock farms, and $12 for 

 sugar farms. 



IKKIGATION STATISTICS. 



Irrigation began more than one hundred years ago in Berks county, 

 where small areas of bottom lands were artificiallv flooded as earlv 

 as ISOO. Until recent years the practice of irrigation was confined 

 to narrow and comparatively level strips of land edging the streams 

 upon which water could be diverted easily and at slight expense. 

 The hillv nature of the country in which irrigation was first intro- 



