12 ANNUAL UEPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AOKICULTL'RE. 



worth $744,000,000. Indeed, the value of the crop of this year is 

 much above that of the high crop values of other preceding years, 

 illustrating the principle that a somewhat deficient crop is usually 

 worth more in the aggregate than an abimdant one. The value of 

 the crop of this year is 13 per cent above the average of the preceding 

 five years. 



The quantity of the hay crop is 60,116,000 tons, and has been 

 exceeded a dozen times. It is 5 per cent below the average crop of 

 the preceding five years. The feeding value of the hay crop, how- 

 ever, is greater than its tonnage implies. Alfalfa has entered into 

 the production of this crop in recent years and has now become in 

 itself a crop of large proportions. 



In relative geographic distribution, the hay crop has changed per- 

 ceptibly during the twenty-one years since the census year 1889. 

 During the interval the North Atlantic States have increased their 

 production of the National crop from 24.3 to 27.8 per cent; the West- 

 ern division, 7.9 to 16.4 per cent; the South Atlantic, from 3.1 to 3.9 

 per cent; the South Central, from 3.3 to 5.8 per cent; the two south- 

 ern groups of States, from 6.4 to 9.7 per cent; and consequently, the 

 North Central States have lost relatively in a marked degree, or from 

 61.4 to 46.1 per cent of the National crop. 



WHEAT. 



Fortunately the wheat crop is divided into two sowings, autumn 

 and spring, and consequently it is not improper to regard wheat as 

 having two crops. These to some extent cover the same territory, 

 but they belong largely to different geographic areas, subject to differ- 

 ent climatic accidents, witli the frequent result that one of the crops is 

 a successful one and the other is not. Such was the fact this year, 

 when the winter crop was a large one and the spring-sown crop suf- 

 fered from severe drought. 



The production of both crops this year is 691,767,000 bushels, or 

 substantially the average of the preceding five years, whereas the 

 value is about $625,000,000, or 7.6 per cent above the five-year 

 average. 



The quantity of this year's wheat crop has been exceeded four times, 

 but the value has been exceeded only once, in 1909, although the crop 

 of 1908 was nearly as valuable. 



Wheat is another crop that has undergone perceptible change in 

 relative geographic distribution since the census year 1889, but in a 

 less degree than corn and hay. During the twenty-one years the 

 fraction of the National crop produced in the North Atlantic States 

 declined from 6.8 to 5.9 per cent; in the North Central States, from 

 68.6 to 62.9 per cent; whereas there were increases in the other 



