MISSOURI CROP REVIEW FOR 1909. 



(W. L. Nelson, Assistant Secretary State Board of Agriculture.) 



The total estimated value of Missouri farm crops for the year 

 1909 is, according to figures compiled from reports made to the Mis- 

 souri State Board of Agriculture by its six hundred correspondents, 

 $209,219,478. This is $37,403,925 more than the estimated value of 

 the 1908 crop, which was figured at $171,815,553. In the more than 

 two hundred millions of dollars value for the crops of the year 1909, 

 corn, wheat, oats, tame hay and forage, prairie hay, flax, rye, buck- 

 wheat, barley, broomcorn, cotton, potatoes, tobacco, sorghum seed, sor- 

 ghum syrup, clover seed, timothy seed, kaffir corn, millet, cowpeas, 

 castor beans and other minor crops, also miscellaneous vegetables are 

 included, but live stock, poultry and orchard products are not repre- 

 sented. 



The increase for th© year comes largely on corn, wheat and oats, 

 but other and less important crops also make a splendid showing. 



Com. — The estimated corn yield for the year 1908, with an 

 acreage of 6,530,410, was 173,573,422 bushels, worth at prices then pre- 

 vailing $98,607,605. The total yield of corn for the present year (1909) 

 is placed at 197,714,946 bushels on an estimated acreage of 7,205,396. 

 The value of this corn crop is placed at $114,844,044 — an average of 

 one million dollars' worth for each county in the State. This crop, 

 measured in money, is the most valuable by several millions of dollars 

 than the State has ever produced. The average yield per acre for the 

 year was 27.4 bushels. 



The season of 1909 opened favorably and somewhat earlier than 

 the average. As Avas pointed out in our April report, the indications 

 were then for an unusually large acreage of corn. The price was 

 high, old corn was scarce, and in a number of counties, especially in 

 the southwestern part of the State, brome sedge, a troublesome weed, 

 best gotten rid of by plowing the ground, had spread over many of 

 the meadows and pastures. Added to this, the preceding fall and 

 winter had been favorable for breaking ground for corn, thirty-two 

 per cent, being broken before spring. 



This per cent, was the largest for five years. The soil, except in a 

 few of the northern counties, was in excellent condition for planting. 

 In the extreme southwestern part of the State a little corn was reported 

 planted during the last week in March. During the month of April the 



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