527 



and tlie average jaelds per acre in each connty of tlie State for four 

 periods of 10 years each are shown with the aid of maps. The average 

 yields in bushels per acre in the State during periods of 10 years each 

 were as follows: 12.3 in 1850-59, 11 in 1860-69, 13.4 in 1870-79, 13.7 

 in 1880-89. " During the 40-year period under consideration there 

 have been seven seasons in which the average yield for the State fell 

 below 10 bushels per acre." 



" The farmers of Ohio are now spending nearly a million dollars 

 annually in the purchase of commercial fertilizers, which are chietiy 

 used in the production of wheat. These fertilizers were not purchased 

 in large qiuintity i)revious to 1875, but since that date their use has 

 rapidly increased." From a map " on which the average annual 

 expenditure for fertilizers for each acre sown in wheat in the various 

 counties of the State is shown for 10 years" (1880-89), it appears that 

 there are two large districts in the northeastern and southeastern por- 

 tions of the State in which this exx)enditure exceeds 40 cents per acre, 

 and that tliere are twenty-nine counties, chiefly in the northeastern 

 and central portions, where it is less than 5 cents. 



For a more detailed study the State is divided into seven sections, 

 and the percentage of area in wheat and the jneld per acre are tabu- 

 lated for each county in these several sections, together with the gain 

 or loss in yield during the last decade and the cost of fertilizers per 

 acre. A comparison of the yields in the difierent sections for the last 

 decade with those for the sixties, when wheat culture (for the most part 

 without fertilizers) had sunk to a low ebb, owing to exhaustion of the 

 soil or unfavorable climatic conditions, is made in the following table: 



Effect of fertilizers on yield of wheat. 



Sections. 



Tield per acre. 



1860-69. 1880-89. 



Increase 

 per acre. 



Cost of 

 fertilizers 

 per acre. 



Nortlieastorn 

 North central 

 Northwestern 



Eastern 



Central 



Southwestern 

 Southern 



Bushels. 

 12.7 

 13.1 

 11.6 

 10.5 

 10.9 

 12.6 

 8.2 



Bushels. 

 16.4 

 15.7 

 14.2 

 13.5 

 12.7 

 13.7 

 9.7 



Bushels. 

 3.7 

 2.6 

 2.6 

 3.0 

 1.8 

 1.1 

 1.5 



$1.34 

 0.13 



0.20 

 0.08 

 0.06 

 0.47 



A more nearly correct idea of the trend of wheat production in Ohio may be 

 obtained by comparing the yields of the different sections in two 20-year periods, 

 although even in this case allowance must be made for the fact that the first period 

 contains a series of abnormally low yields, and the second a like series of abnor- 

 mally high yields. 



