STATISTICS. 



351 



bushels. The five-year average for the United States is approximately 

 2,031,000,000 bushels. 



These five states, viz. : Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas and Ne- 

 braska, produce on an average 39 per cent of the corn crop of the world 

 and 51 per cent of the corn produced in the United States. 



Where Missouri Ranks. — For the same five-years period, 1899-1903, 

 inclusive, the State of Missouri has produced 6 per cent of the total 

 world's corn crop, 8 per cent of the total crop of the United States and 

 16 per cent of the total produced by the five corn states named. 



Missouri's Yield is High. — The following table compiled from the 

 Year Book, Department of Agriculture, for the years 1902, 1903 and 1904 

 shows that Missouri outranks, in yield per acre, all the great corn states 

 except Illinois. Missouri produced for the three years named, an average 

 yield of five bushels more per acre than Kansas ; 2.2 bushels more than 

 Nebraska; 1.7 bushels more than Iowa. If the corn acreage of the 

 mineral belt of Missouri could be eliminated and only the corn belt of 

 the State considered, this State w^ould take first rank. 



CORN YIELD PER ACRE. 

 From Tear Book Department of Agriculture. 



Can You See These Figures? — Missouri produced in 1902 an aver- 

 age of 39 bushels of corn per acre for the whole State, a higher yield 

 than any of the corn states for any year of the period mentioned. 



Missouri's Acreage Too Lozv. — The total corn acreage of the State 

 in the above comparison is taken from the Year Book of the Department 

 of Agriculture. The report of the State Board of Agriculture show-s a 

 much larger acreage. From the Year Book of the Department of Agri- 

 culture 1896, page 559, we find that Missouri is credited for that year 

 with a corn arcreage of 6,546,987, while in 1904, eight years later the 

 State is credited with only 5,783,307 acres, a decreas'e of 763,680 acres, 

 or nearly 12 per cent, notwithstanding that during that period there has 



