42 VERMONT AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



$474,000,000. Cattle have increased enormously in number. 

 There were about 11,000,000 in 1850 and in 1899 there were 

 28,000,000, their value almost doubling in the last twenty 

 years, being- now nearly $650,000,000. There has been a sub- 

 stantial increase in the number of swine, and notwithstanding- 

 some drawbacks, sheep have been increasing in both number 

 and value. The actual estimated value of sheep since 1880 

 has been from $100,000,000 to $108,000,000. The value of 

 horses, mules, cattle, sheep and swine increased in the ag- 

 gregate from one and a half billion dollars to two billion 

 dollars since 1880. 



If an inference may be drawn from the statistics of the 

 Department, it is apparent that milch cows and other cattle 

 have been of more importance to the farmer than other farm 

 animals have been. The average value of milch cows in- 

 creased more than $6 in twenty years and the average value of 

 other cattle increased $7, while the average value of horses 

 and mules declined and that of sheep and swine remained 

 stationary, although from 1880 to 1899 sheep increased from 

 $2.21 to $2.75 and swine from $4.28 to $4.42. The wool pro- 

 duct has increased from 36,000,000 pounds in 1840 to 100,- 

 000,000 pounds in 1870. and in 1890 it was 165,000,000. 



Notwithstanding the growth in number of creameries, 

 the farm production of butter in 1850, 3,000,000, pounds was 

 multiplied by more than three in 1890, when the production 

 was one billion pounds. Cheese on the other hand has shown 

 a marked decline on the farm, the decline being from 106,000,- 

 000 pounds in 1850 to 19,000,000 pounds in 1890. The output 

 of factory however shows progress. 



Domestic fowls known as chickens increased more than 

 150 per cent, from 1880 to 1890; other fowls increased percep- 

 tibly, and the number of eggs sold almost doubled. 



Indian corn has become a crop of stupendous propor- 

 tions and now reaches the magnitude of more than two bill- 

 ion bushels annually, or six times the crop of 1840 and three 

 times the crop of 1870. The area devoted to this crop has in- 

 creased from 4,000,000 acres in 1866 to about 80,000,000 acres 

 in recent years, and the crop increased in value during this 

 time from $411,000,000 to about $550,000,000 in recent years. 



The wheat crop of the United States for 1899 is reported 

 at 547,000,000 bushels, or 12 3-10 bushels per acre. The pro- 

 duction of some of the recent years has been above this figure, 

 but that of 1840 was only 85,000,000 bushels and that of 1870 

 only 288,000,000 bushels. The area devoted to wheat has in- 

 ceased enormously and at the present amounts to about 300 

 per cent, of the acreage of 1866. During this time the value 



