736 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



PART XIII. 



FARM, CROP AND LIVE STOCK STATISTICS. 



The tables herein given are compiled from volumes 5 and 6 

 of the United States census report for 1890, except as otherwise 

 noted. 



TWENTY-PIVE-BII LION DOLLAR INDUSTRY. 



Breeders 1 Gazette. 



A bulletin recently issued by the Census Bureau at Washington eon* 

 tains figures which give American agriculture at June 30, 1900, an aspect 

 of vast commercial importance. At that time 5,739,657 farms were being 

 operated. These were valued at $16,673,694,247, of which amount $3,560,- 

 198,191, or over 21 per cent, represented the value of buildings and $13,- 

 114,492,056, or over 78 per cent, represented the value of lands and im- 

 provements other than buildings. The value of live stock for that year 

 is placed at $3,078,050,041 and farm machinery and implements at $761,261,- 

 550, making a total value of farm property amounting to $20,514,001,848. 

 Farms averaged 146 acres in size and 49 per cent of the farm land is reported 

 as improved. The total acreage for the entire country was 941,201,546. 

 Texas leads with the greatest number of farms, 352,190, and also with the 

 highest acreage, 125,807,017, though only 17 per cent of the farm land in 

 that state was improved. Missouri ranks second in the number of farms. 

 Towa leads the list in the percentage of improved land. Illinois follows. 

 Ohio comes next followed by Indiana. Illinois occupies the first position 

 in the matter of the total value of farm lands, the figures being $2,004,316,- 

 897. Iowa is second. Live stock lands are put down at a value of $7,505,- 

 284,273, or more than 36 per cent of the whole. The total value of farm 

 products for 1899 is given at $4,739,118,752, of which amount $1,718,990,- 

 221 was for animal products and the products of live stock, poultry and 

 bees. Irrigators in the arid states and territories increased from 1889 to 

 1899 from 52,584 to 102,919, or 95 per cent, and the number of acres irri- 

 gated increased from 3,564,415 to 7,263,273, or 103 per cent. 



Marvelous improvement in agricultural conditions throughout the 

 country according to these figures may be read between the lines, and 

 still Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson himself in a recent address 

 on "The New Agriculture" said: "We have not yet begun. It is a new 

 subject; so new, in fact, that its possibilities cannot be comprehended." 



