6 Report of the President. 



and herds of New York State is $139,514,947: $60,007,605 for 

 horses, $387,253 for mules, $54,607,281 for milch cows, $14,855,158 

 for other cattle, $4,009,525 for sheep, and $5,648,125 for swine. 

 The State has also 67,457 dairy farms or about one-sixth of all in 

 the entire Union. The milk produced in 1899 (the last year for 

 which figures are available) was 772,799,352 gallons. Of this 

 amount 445,427,888 gallons were sold and $36,248,833 received 

 therefor. New York ranks first among the states in the annual pro- 

 duction of milk and butter and second in the production of 

 cheese, the total value of all dairy produce in 1899 being $55,474,- 

 155. New York also ranks first in the number of dairy cows 

 (1,501,608), and in the annual production of hay and forage ($55,- 

 237,446), vegetables ($25,756,000), forest products ($7,671,000), 

 flowers and plants ($2,878,000), small fruits ($2,538,000), beans 

 ($2,472,000), nursery products ($1,703,000), and hops ($1,600,000). 



But there is another side to the picture. Up to 1870 New York 

 held first place among the states in the value of its farm property. 

 But in 1880 it was surpassed by Ohio, in 1890 by both Ohio and 

 Illinois, and in 1900 by Ohio, Illinois, and Iowa. In population too 

 there has been a decline in the rural counties owing partly to a lower 

 birth rate but mainly to migration of the population to the cities 

 and other regions. Still there were 1,200 more farm families in 

 the State in 1900 than in 1890. But the families who owned their 

 farms had decreased by 3,479 and the families hiring farms had in- 

 creased by 3,238; so that the percentage of farms worked by owners 

 had decreased in the decade from 79.8 to 74.4 and the percentage 

 worked by tenants had increased from 20.2 to 23.9. Furthermore 

 one-third of the 227,000 farms in the State were in 1900 reported 

 as encumbered. Finally, there was between 1880 and 1900 an an- 

 nual decrease in the value of farm property of $7,330,000. 



In the interpretation of the figures which hgve been given certain 

 fundamental facts must be kept in mind. First of all, agriculture 

 in New York and generally in the east is in the process of adapta- 

 tion to new conditions, in the course of which some farms have been 

 abandoned and others enlarged, as in the keen competition some 

 farmers have increased in prosperity and others have retrograded. 

 Secondly, the land in New York is still productive, as is clear from 

 the fact that, while in farm acreage it ranks seventeenth among the 

 states (only 69% of the total acreage of New York being improved 

 land), in the value of farm property it ranks fourth, or, again, that, 

 though in the total value of its farm crops it is surpassed by Illinois, 

 Iowa, Texas, and Ohio, in the value per acre of farm products it 



