104 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



Missouri — for the 40 years, 1865 to 1904, inclusive, as indicated by the 

 statistics collected by the United States Department of Agriculture. The 

 table shows the average yield per acre by lo-year periods, as found by 

 taking the mean of the yearly averages, and it also shows the total areai 

 in each crop for the four states for the same periods, and the combined! 

 area in the three cereal crops, corn, wheat and oats, this combination! 

 being added because there has been in Illinois a considerable shifting, 

 during later years from wheat to oats. The figures for area are for the- 

 census years only, and are compiled from the reports of the eleventhi 

 census, except for the first period, which is compiled from the estimates- 

 of the Department of Agriculture. These estimates in turn are based' 

 upon those of crop correspondents scattered throughout the country. To- 

 test their accuracy, a table has been compiled, in which they are com- 

 pared with statistics collected annually by the township assessors of 

 Ohio. It will be seen that, while the two sets of statistics dififer slightly 

 in minor details, they point to the same general conclusion, namely : that 

 the close of this forty-year period finds this group of states producing 

 practically the same quantity of grain per acre as the beginning. 



In corn, the averages for the entire state of Ohio, "as made up from 

 the assessors' statistics, indicate that, after a steady reduction in yield 

 for 30 years, that reduction has been overcome at the end of the period. 

 A study of these statistics by counties, however, shows that this apparent 

 increase during the later period, is chiefly found in the northwestern 

 counties, where large areas of fertile land have, within a compara- 

 tively recent period, been reclaimed from a semi-swawp condition by 

 drainage. In the river valleys, which have been the great cornfields of 

 the State from its earliest settlement, there has been a very general de- 

 crease in yield during the last 25 years. The National statistics show 

 a stationary yield for Indiana, a small increase in yield for Illinois, and 

 a small decrease in Missouri. 



In wheat, the State statistics show a small increase in yield for 

 Ohio, but an analysis of these statistics shows that this increase is found 

 practically altogether in the northcn half of the State, where it has 

 been brought about by a large and increasing use of commercial fertil- 

 izers in the northeastern counties, and by extensive drainage in the 

 northwestern region. Both State and National statistics show a de- 

 creased yield of wheat in Ohio for the last 10 years, as compared with 

 the two decades immediately preceding, and the National statistics indi- 

 cate a similar condition for Indiana and Illinois. 



When we remember that these averages include the crops of many 

 good farmers whose yields never fall to the level of such averages ; that 



