14 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



It is too early now to forecast accurately the production of beet 

 sugar for 1910, but the indication is that the crop will be about as 

 large £ls that of 1909, or, say, 512,000 short tons. The factory value 

 of this sugar is about $51,000,000, or hardly less than the value of 

 the crop of 1909, which was the record year. 



Commercial estimates indicate that the cane-sugar crop of this year 

 will be about 347,000 short tons, which has been frequently exceeded 

 in recent years. The factory value of this sugar is about $28,000,000, 

 an amount that has been exceeded in four 3'ears. 



If prospects are realized, the entire sugar crop of factor}^ produc- 

 tion, beet and cane combined, will be about 859,000 short tons, or a 

 production that has been exceeded in only one year, 1909. In factory 

 value the two sugar crops will equal about $79,000,000, and if to this 

 be added the value of molasses, sirup, beet pulp, and sorghum and 

 maple products, the combined value of the production of sugar, sirup, 

 and molasses, with subsidiary products, is about $97,000,000, or only 

 $4,000,000 under the high-water mark of 1909. 



TOBACCO. 



The tobacco crop has slightly exceeded the production of the 

 record year 1909, and its 967,150,000 pounds are 26 per cent above 

 the average production of the five preceding years. 



Apparently the tobacco prices of 1909 are barely maintained for the 

 crop of this year, and the total value of the crop is therefore about 

 the same as it was for the crop of 1909, or, say, $95,000,000. No 

 tobacco crop previous to 1909 was worth its amount by fuUy 20 

 miUion dollars. 



Tobacco, under the better prices of recent years, is steadily climbing 

 upward in production. The average prices for the last five years, 

 including 1910, have been 10 cents a pound and a little better. It 

 seems to be required that the average price of the crop, all types and 

 grades included, shall not decUne if this crop is to maintain its 

 increasing production. 



BARLEY. 



Barley this year has hardly maintained the average production of 

 the preceding five years, the production of this year being 158,138,000 

 bushels, as compared with the five-year average of 161,240,000. 

 This year's crop, however, has been exceeded only three times, in 

 1909, 1908, and 1906. 



In point of value the crop of 1910 has been exceeded only in 1907, 

 and the value of this year is 16 per cent above the average of the 

 previous five years. 



The price of barley suddenly increased about 60 per cent, to 66.6 

 cents in 1907, after which it declined to about 55 cents a bushel in 



