KEPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



15 



the direction of au agent in London, who is connected officially with 

 the Department of State, has been improving in efficiency and breadth 

 during the past year. This was undertaken at the urgent request of 

 representatives of western agriculture, to obtain advance information 

 concerning European products with which ours come in direct compe- 

 tition. The need was emphasized by the incompleteness and fragment- 

 ary character of unofficial information relating to foreign crop pros- 

 pects. 



The report of the present year contains a review of the course of ag- 

 ricultural production during fifteen years, which shows an estimated in- 

 crease in corn of 37,000,000 acres, or 80 per cent. ; in Avheat, of 20,000,000 

 acres, or 108 per cent. ; in oats, of 13,000,000 acres, or 142 per cent. ; in 

 all cereals taken together, 67,000,000 acres, or 97 per cent. The en- 

 largement of the wheat area was extraordinary during the jieriod of 

 partial failure of the crops of Western Europe ; the extension of the 

 breadth in maize was aided hj the rise of the foreign trade in beeves 

 and fresh meats, and by the sudden enlai^emeut of exports of pork 

 products, induced by the cheapness of corn; and the cultivation of 

 oats has received especial impetus from the seeding of rust-proof va- 

 rieties in the South, and from the necessity of less heating feed for horses 

 than a too exclusive maize ration. The increase from 69,000,000 acres 

 of cereals in 1870 — a breadth nearly equal to the superficial area of 

 Missouri and Ohio — to 136,000,000 acres, an increase of 67,000,000 acres 

 since 1870, means the seeding and harvesting of additional area equal 

 to the entire surface of Iowa and North Carolina. 



The average estimated area and product of the i)riucipal food crops 

 of the last five years is compared with the average of the ten years 

 preceding, from 1870 to 1879, inclusive, as follows : 



Crops. 



1880-'84. 



Bushels. 



Acres. 



1870-'79. 



Bushels. 



Acres. 



Com 



Wheat 



Gilts 



Kye 



Barley 



Buck-wheat 

 Potatoes... 



1, 575, 194, 104 



463, 973, n98 



495,509,478 



26, mo, 399 



49, 324, 070 



10, 781, 793 



109,241,133 



60,045,016 1,184,486,954 



37, 738, S»'2 

 18, 628, 029 

 2, 088, 605 

 2,214,154 

 847, 096 

 2, 112, 378 



312,152,728 



314,441,178 



18, 460, 985 



33, 704, 652 



9 747 272 



132! 837i 175 



43,741,331 



25,187,414 



1 1, 076, 82 .' 



1,305,061 



1, 529, 357 



551, 104 



1, 514, 045 



The average yield of corn per acre has been 23.9 bushels per acre, 

 against 27.1 for the preceding period; the average value has therel'ore 

 been higher, 44.7 cents per bushel instead of 42.0, and the average 

 value of an acre $10.07 instead of $11.54. 



The average yields of wheat in the two periods are nearly identical, 

 12.3 and 12.4 bushels, respectively, but the price has averaged 90.1 cents, 

 instead of 104.9, the demand not being equal to the supply. 



The crops of the present year are ample for all the demands of con- 



