xxxvi 



AGRICULTURAL BULLETIN 



reported for the last decade is hay and forage, the gain amounting to 396,- 

 807 acres. 



The next table shows for 1909 and 1899 the percentage which the farms 

 reporting specified crops represented of all farms, the percentage of im- 

 proved land devoted to these crops, and the percentage of increase or de- 

 crease in the acreage of each crop during the decade, together with the av- 

 erage yields and average values per acre for 1909: 



Crop 



Per Cent of 



Farms 

 Reporting 



1909 



Per Cent of 



Improved 



Land 



1909 



1899 



-.5 



moo 



O O '- — 



O u> <L ~- 



a5a«c 

 or 



cSi 



Average 



Yield 

 per Acre 



1909 



Av. 

 Value 



per 

 Acre 



1609 



Corn — 



Oats 



Wheat 



Barley 



Eye 



Flaxseed 



Timothy seed 



Ha* and forage. 

 Potatoes 



90.6 

 69.9 



16.8 

 2.0 

 0.6 



7.6 

 83.3 

 78.5 



37.1 Bu. 



27.5 Bu. 

 15.3 Bu. 



19.2 Bu. 



13.6 Bu. 



9.1 Bu. 



4.2 Bu. 

 1.6 Tons 



86.8 Bu. 



18.16 

 10.54 

 14.62 

 9.31 

 8.50 

 11.74 

 5.79 

 11.76 

 39.10 



*A minus sign (— ) denotes decrease. 

 fNot reported. 



Corn is grown by over nine-tenths of the farmers of the state, hay and 

 forage by more than eight-tenths, and oats by about seven-tenths. Pota- 

 toes are reported from about four farms in five. None of the other crops 

 are very generally grown. Slightly more than one-half of all improved 

 land is in cereals and about one-sixth in hay and forage. 



The average value per acre for all cereals combined is $15.31, which 

 among the cereals is exceeded by the average for corn only. Corn is re- 

 ported at about one and one-third times the value of wheat per acre, wheat 

 ranking second. Hay and forage ranks in value per acre above each of 

 the cereals other than the two just mentioned, falling, however, almost 

 40 per cent short of the value of corn per acre. 



Within the state some important readjustments have taken place. The 

 acreage of wheat, though decreasing greatly in the state as a whole, shows 

 relatively large increases in all the southeastern counties, and in some 

 of the extreme southern counties, but nowhere else is there an exception 

 to the general tendency. Oats, on the contrary, show important gains in 

 acreage in all of the northwestern counties, small gains in a few of the 

 central and southern counties, and decreases elsewhere. Barley, although 

 showing a net decrease in acreage, made gains in nearly two-thirds of the 

 counties, the losses, largely in a few northwestern counties, overbalancing 

 them. The decrease in the corn acreage is distributed quite evenly over 

 the state, gains occurring in but seven scattered counties, and in a line of 

 counties extending from Mitchell county west to the corner of the state 

 and south to Plymouth, inclusive The greatest increase is in Lyon coun- 

 ty, about 35,000 acres; the greatest decrease, in Taylor, over 25,000 acres. 



