Missowi Crop Review. 615 



MISSOURI CROP REVIEW FOR 1912. 



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



The value of Missouri farm products and live stock for the year 

 1912 is estimated at more than three-quarters of a billion dollars. 

 Of this stupendous sum $188,129,500 is represented in the ordinary 

 field crops alone 



The year 1912 was one characterized by prosperity and plenty 

 and while no records in crop production were broken, the yields 

 generally were good. Favorable harvest weather made it possible 

 for farmers to save all crops in the best of shape. At the close of 

 such a season the Missouri farmer, his fields filled with fatness and 

 bins ready to burst looks with constant and added pride upon the old 

 home place. Pity he gives to the man who, mistaking a mirage in 

 the desert for the promised land, went away to some sun-scorched 

 or snow-clad country, when he might have remained in Missouri. 



Corn — The Missouri corn crop for the year 1912 is approxi- 

 mately a quarter of a billion bushels — 243,042,951. This exceeds 

 the corn crop of 1911 by more than 50,000,000 bushels. The farm 

 value of the crop averages almost one million dollars to the county, 

 while the commercial value considerably exceeds this. The value 

 of the corn grown in Missouri this year, figured at the average state 

 farm price of 43 cents per bushel is $104,517,350. The average 

 yield for the 7,610,988 acres is 31.9 bushels — practically 32 bushels 

 per acre. The yield by sections is: Northeast, 34; Northwest, 

 35.1; Central, 36; Southwest, 24.5; Southeast, 31.9. The county 

 making the best yield per acre was Cooper, in the Central section, 

 with 45 bushels. St. Charles county, with 40 bushels, is first 

 in the Northeast section. Lafayette, with 44, and Carroll, with 43, 

 lead in the Northwest section. Johnson, with a 38-bushel average, 



leads in the Southwest section, while Ste. Genevieve, with 38 bush- 

 els to the acre and Gasconade and Perry each with 36 bushels 

 average, lead in the Southeast section. 



Overflows in the fabulously fertile districts of Southeast Mis- 

 souri lowered the yield per acre in a number of counties, while un- 

 favorable weather conditions for a short time during the growing 

 season cut down the yield in the great corn counties of Northwest 

 Missouri. Still Atchison, Nodaway, Pettis, Saline and Johnson 

 each grew more than 5,000,000 bushels of corn, while Audrain. 



