REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 17 



A loss was sufFered in wheat, amounting to $104,000,000; corn, 

 $98,000,000; oats, $26,000,000; potatoes and wool, $23,000,000 each. 

 The farm value of the cereal crops dechned $230,000,000 in 1910 

 from 1909, and the value of all crops declined $119,000,000. A gain 

 was made, however, in the value of animal products, amounting to 

 $424,000,000. It has been a year of liigh prices for meat and animals, 

 for poultry and eggs, and for milk and butter, and for these reasons 

 the total value of all farm products increased in 1910 $304,000,000 

 above the estimate for 1909. 



FOREIGN TRADE IN AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS. 

 THE TRADE BALANCE. 



Until 1898 there was ever a balance of trade against the United 

 States in merchandise other than farm products; in that year for 

 the first time the exports of merchandise other than farm products 

 exceeded in value the imports. From 1898 to 1902 the value of 

 exports of merchandise other than farm products exceeded that of 

 imports, and again from 1904 to 1909. The contrary was true for 

 1903 and 1910, the adverse balance of the last year for manufac- 

 tures and other merchandise not produced on the farm being 

 $10,926,193. 



On the other hand, in the case of farm products there has been an 

 almost unbroken balance of trade in favor of the United States as 

 far back as inquiry has been made. From 1851 to 1863 is found 

 this favorable balance and also from 1866 to the present time. During 

 the five-year period 1886-1890 the farmer's balance of trade in favor 

 of this country averaged $206,265,002; during the next five years 

 the average was $257,666,800; in the five years that followed the 

 average was $386,637,041; during the period 1901-1905 the average 

 was $431,234,941; and during the last five-year period, 1906-1910, 

 the average was $433,683,775. The increase in this quinquennial 

 average has been unbroken since 1886-1890. 



Except for two years, 1898 and 1901, the highest balance of trade 

 in favor of this country in the matter of farm products was 

 $488,004,797 for 1908, a year which seems to mark the culminating 

 point in the course of the balance of trade in farm products. In 

 1909 the balance dechned to $274,210,152, and in 1910 the decline 

 continued to $198,090,925. It may be that in 1910 there was not 

 that National surplus of agricultural products to export wliich the 

 country had olTered to other nations of the earth in years preced- 

 ing. But, however this may be, it is a fact recognized in the export- 

 ing trade that the prices of farm products in the fiscal 3^ear 1910 

 were liigh enough to prevent that free export movement which before 

 existed. 



73477°— AGE 1910 2 



