380 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



BUCKWHEAT. 



This, smallest in area and product of the principal cereals, was 

 somewhat under average in yield, considerably less than the'average 

 of the preceding year, producing scarcely 10,000,000 bushels. Two- 

 thirds of the crop is grown in New York and Pennsylvania, for con- 

 sumption in the form of breakfast batter-cakes, and used largely in 

 the central cities and towns of the Middle States. The following 

 record is made for product and value : 



ALL CEREALS. 



The increase in cereals is shown by the figures below, the average 

 of the decade ended in 1879 being 1,872,993,769, and that of the last 

 six years 3,686,875,943 bushels, an increase of over 30 per cent., which 

 is decidedly in advance of the ratio of increase of population, and 

 serves to explain the relative cheapness of grain, aside from the 

 general tendency to lower prices. The j)roduct for 1886 is about 

 2,842,000,000 bushels, or 47 bushels per capita of present population, 

 and greater than the average of the period since the general census. 

 The record is as follows up to 1885 : 



The potato [Solanum tuberosum) is grown in all parts of the coun- 

 try, not very extensively in the South, where it is little used except 

 in spring, or grown for Northern shipment as an early crop. The 

 crop was a heavy one in 1884, and has since been declining to quite 



