The Bulletin. 5 



Prior to 1880, wheat was grown pretty generally over North Caro- 

 lina, but since that time the production has been largely restricted to 

 the Piedmont and mountainous sections of the State. 



A number of factors have operated in curtailing the production of 

 wheat in the Coastal Plain Region, not least among these being a 

 general absence of soils suited to wheat culture and a lack of sufficient 

 water power to operate the primitive burr mills used in its manufac- 

 ture into flour. The farmers of the section were also, doubtless, in- 

 fluenced against wheat growing by the better adaptation of their soils 

 to and the promise of greater rewards from the growing of cotton, 

 peanuts, light tobacco, and early truck crops. 



STATISTICS 



The annual supply of wheat to the world today is something over 

 three billion bushels, of which the United States produces about one- 

 fourth. For years no systematic records were kept of the yield of 

 wheat in this country. In 1850 the Census Report showed the wheat 

 production of the United States to be about 100,000,000 bushels. From 

 this amount the yield grew to our maximum production of over 748,- 

 000,000 bushels in 1901. In 1907 the average yield of wheat per acre 

 in the United States was 14 bushels. The same year the average acre 

 yield for North Carolina was 9.5 bushels. 



Strange as it may appear, the price of wheat in the United States in 

 1850, when we grew but 100,000,000 bushels, was lower than it is 

 today, when we grow over 700,000,000 bushels. This shows that while 

 the supply has increased over 600 per cent, the demand has undergone 

 an even more pronounced change. 



In 1900 North Carolina produced 5,960,803 bushels of wheat worth 

 82 cents a bushel, representing a money value to the State of $4,887,- 

 858. In 1907 we produced but 5,320,000 bushels, but the price ad- 

 vanced to $1.07 a bushel, thus giving the crop a money value of $5,- 

 692,000, an increase of $804,142 over the larger but lower-priced crop 

 of 1900. In 1910 the average acre yield in North Carolina was 11.4 

 bushels. The price ranged from $1.10 to $1.30 with a general average 

 of about $1.20 a bushel. The total yield in the State was 7,433,000 

 bushels. It thus appears that we not only had the largest acre yield, 

 and received the best price per bushel, but also the largest total yield 

 in the history of the State. The year 1910 was a great wheat year 

 for North Carolina. 



In view of the rapidly increasing price of wheat and the thousands 

 of acres of land in the State well suited to the production of this crop 

 on a profitable scale, the State Department of Agriculture deems it 

 wise to foster and encourage the growth of this crop among our farm- 

 ers. 



When we remember that the great wheat region of the Northwest, 

 where good crops may be grown without irrigation, is nearly all occu- 

 pied, and that these virgin soils lose their crop-producing power rap- 

 idly after five or six years of continuous wheat culture, the present 

 high price of wheat in our midst should carry a definite meaning to 

 North Carolina wheat growers. Why should not the farmers of the 

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