318 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



Upon the proceeds of agriculture about 35 per cent, of our popu- 

 lation are dependent for their living. Before, however, the prod 

 ucts of the year can be enjoyed there must first be expended vast 

 sums for rent of land and buildings, implements, labor, fertilizers. 

 taxes and other expenses. Whatever is left is then available for 

 the maintenance of the agricultural population, and for addition to 

 their accumulation of surplus wealth. Accordingly, the aggregate 

 income of a nation, or an individual is not of itself conclusive evi- 

 dence of unbounded prosperity. The cost may be greater than the 

 income, and the individual be left at the end of the year worse off 

 than at its beginning. 



I have thought that it might be interesting and perhaps instruc- 

 tive to take some of the items of our production and analyze them 

 with a view to discovering their precise status as contributors to the 

 general prosperity of the country and tO' the wealth of farming 

 people. In dealing with the great problems of agriculture it is 

 necessary to follow to some extent the methods of the chemical 

 analyst and deal with units or small areas. The chemist in under 

 taking to discover the truth respecting the composition of a sub- 

 stance do^s not anal.yze the entire mass, but selects a sample, and 

 divides and sub-divides it until but a small quantity is finally se- 

 lected, and with this he conducts his investigation. The individual 

 farmer and the land that he tills correspond in this instance to the 

 chemist's sample. The various operations, crops, animals and soils 

 with which he deals are the component parts which exhibit the true 

 condition of the business. The abundance, average condition, cost 

 of production and degree of perfection of the product show at least 

 approximately, the condition and profitableness of the industry 

 as a whole. 



WHEAT PRODUCTION. 



Perhaps no single crop is grown more universally throughout the 

 United States than w^heat. From the northernmost States to the 

 Gulf, and from the Atlantic Coast to the Pacific, every State in the 

 Union reports a greater or less acreage of this cereal. Inasmuch as 

 quite accurate data extending back through many years are at 

 hand respecting the products of this crop, it is possible to ascertain 

 with considerable accuracy and definiteness the actual conditions 

 under which it is produced. 



In the past ten years the annual w^heat crop of the United States 

 ranged from 522,229,50.5 to 735.260,970 bushels. The average annual 

 production, however, for the ten years from 1897 to 1906, was 631,- 

 181,626 bushels. Tlie average yield per acre in the United States 

 for the decade 1897 to 1906 as given by the report of the Department 

 of Agriculture for 1906 was 13.8 bushels, and the average annual 

 yield from 1871 to 1906 was 12.69 bushels per acre. The averages 

 per acre according to periods were as follow^s: 1871 to 1876, 11.70 

 bushels; 1877 to 1886, 12.51 bushels; 1887 to 1896, 12.66 bushels; 

 1897 to 1906, 13.82 bushels, and the average for the entire period 

 from 1871 to 1906 was 12.69 bushels. The annual average value of 

 the crop for the decade. 1897 to 1906. was |9.48, and for the entire 

 thirty-six years from 1871 to 1906, |10.28 per acre.* 



•Report of Department of Agriculture, 1906. 



