REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 15 



crease was 10, for 1907 it was 15, for 1909 it was 16, for 1910 the 

 increase was less than 2, and for this year there is a loss of 6 in 

 the index number. At the end of six years after 1899, or the year 

 1905, the index number had risen from 100 to 133: in five years more 

 it mounted to 183; and the highest point reached is 184.3 for 1910. 

 The number for 1911 is 178.4. The progression was broken by this 

 year, so that two other j^ears, 1909 and 1910, exceed 1911 in the value 

 of the wealth produced on farms. 



Little is known of the total agricultural wealth production of 

 foreign countries, but the little that is known affords interesting 

 comparisons. A rough but official estimate of the value of the wealth 

 produced by agriculture in Italy in 1910, a year of large production, 

 is $1,351,000,000. Official returns of the production in Japan, aver- 

 aged for the three years 1905-1907, give an annual value of a little 

 more than $613,000,000. The official yearbook of the Commonwealth 

 of Australia reports for 1908 a value of $484,000,000. According to 

 the Canadian census of 1901 the value of the farm products of the 

 foregoing year was $363,000,000; the census of 1911 has not yet pub- 

 lished the corresponding figures for 1910, but the annual official re- 

 port of agriculture indicates a present production valued at about 

 $900,000,000. 



CHIEF CROPS. 



In the statement that follows concerning the crop quantities and 

 values for 1911 no figures should be accepted as anticipating the 

 final estimates of this department, to be made later. Only approxi- 

 mations can be adopted, such as could be made by any competent 

 person outside of this department. All values are for products at 

 the farm, unless otherwise stated, and in no item are values at the 

 produce or commercial exchange. 



CORN. 



With a value more than twice that of the cotton crop this year, 

 and but little less than the combined values of the cotton, wheat, and 

 oats crops, corn is by far the leading crop as a wealth producer. The 

 estimate of 2,776.000,000 bushels indicates a production that has been 

 exceeded in only two years, but it is a little under the average for the 

 preceding five years. 



The farm price of corn is now higher than it has been since the 

 records of the department began in 1866, except in 1883, and this 

 establishes a total value for the crop that reaches $1,700,000,000 and 

 breaks the record. 



So preeminently is corn the leading crop of this country that about 

 three-quarters of the world's crop is grown here. For the five years 

 1905-1909 the percentage is 70.2. 



