324 



ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE 



Off. Doc. 



254 bushels of shelled corn; 800 bushels of potatoes; 300 bushels of 

 strawberries, aud 12 tons of hay. While these are exceptional 

 harvests, yet they illustrate the productive power of an acre of 

 ground, and show the possibilities of agriculture in these several 

 directions. 



PRODUCTION IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 



What can be done aud has been done upon a large scale in crop 

 production by the use of proper methods is illustrated by reports 

 from other countries. The following figures giving the average 

 production of wheat, rye, oats, barley and potatoes in Austria, 

 Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Great Britain 

 and Ireland for the years 1903, 1904 and 1905 compared with the 

 average of these same crops of the United States as given in the 

 census of 1900, show how much further advanced are their methods 

 than those in use in this country. The average of wheat per acre 

 in these eight foreign countries in these years was 28.42 bushels as 

 against 12.5 bushels in the United States; rye, 24.5 as against 12.4; 

 oats, 43.56 as against 31.9; barley, 34.9 as against 26.8; potatoes, 

 180.23 as against 93 bushels. This shows an average increase per 

 acre in all of these countries above the average production of the 

 United States of 127 per cent, for wheat; 97 per cent, for rye; 35.8 

 per cent, for oats; 30 per cent, for barley, and 93 per cent, for 

 potatoes. 



HOW SIMILAR INCREASE WOULD AFFECT CROPS IN UNITES STATES. 



Such an addition to the crops of the United States would be 

 equivalent to an annual increase in value of these five crops over 

 that reported in the Census of 1900 of .|666,483,219, or 90 per cent. 

 If the same percentage were applied to the total crop production 

 of that year in the United States, the increase would amount to 

 $2,619,124,726. 



If, however, instead of taking the total averages for the three 

 years in all of the foreign countries alluded to, there are selected 

 from them the averages of only the most productive years, a much 

 higher percentage of increase is shown. The following table shows 

 averages of crops per acre in five foreign countries for selected 

 years compared with the averages of the United States in 1899. 



