REPORT OF THE STATISTICIAN. 



375 



change in quantity. A glance at the diagram shows clearly this fact, 

 in the case of wheat very strikingly, as a very low yield is instantly re- 

 sponded to by a high valuation. But there is a crossing of lines and 

 twisting of ^gures for two or three years past that demand explana- 

 tion. It is due to the fact that the changes in the world's supply, in 

 the great international wheat pool, do not correspond with the aunual 

 variations of our crops. Thus our crop of 1885 was very small, while 

 the aggregate supply of the world was large. Ko such irregularities 

 occur with coru or oats, because the foreign demand is small and for- 

 eign competition almost inoperative. We make our own prices for corn 

 and oats, while Liverpool has much to do with the price of wheat. 

 The figures on which the diagram is based are as follows : 



INCREASE OF WHEAT YIELD. 



The following statement is from a letter of the Statistician to Prof. J. P. 

 Eoberts, of Cornell University, in response to inquiries on this subject : 



In response to your inquiries I may give a few facts tending to sho-w the increase 

 of rate of yield of wheat, the principal food-grain of coautriea of high civilization, as 

 the result of progressive and scientific agriculture. It is a very significant fact that 

 the countries of high natural fertility, of virgin soils show theloweet rates of yield, 

 while the soils of countries, long cultivated under systematic and enlightened meth- 

 ods, give much higher returns. Thus in Australasia the rate of yield is about 12 

 bushels per acre, as in this country. In ladia the average is about 9 bushels. 



Coming to Europe, the average of Russia may be said to be 6 to 7 bushels, produced 

 by careless cultivation in the rich soils of the black-earth belt and in other sections. 

 The average of the valley of the Danube diflors little from the average yield of thia 

 country. The average of Portugal is usually placed at about 13 bushels. 



In 1873, when a series of good wheat seasons had been enjoyed in Europe, an inter- 

 national statistical commission fixed upon the following average rates oi yield for 

 those countries of E urope that furnished statisical data to determine them : 



Great Britain 29.9 Saxe-Weimar 17.2 



Saxe-Altenburg ., 28.7 France 17.1 



Belgium 27.9 Baden 16.9 



Saxony 27.0 Wurtemberg 16.6 



Holland ; 24. B Roumania 13.8 



Norway 23.3 Portugal 13.2 



Denmark 19.5 Hungary 12.6 



Finland 17.8 



In the thirteenth century, according to J. E. Thorold Rogers, the rate of yield, 

 while variable and not accurately determined, was not thought to exceed a quarter 

 of 8 bushels. Arthur Young, in 1770, made the average in England 23 bushels per 

 acre, and Sir James Caird, in 1850, 26^ bushels. Though the yield is given in xhe 

 above table of the commission at 29.9 bushels. Sir James Caird, in 1868, thought 28 

 bushels near the real average. There was a large yield for several years afterward, 

 but after 1873 there was a period of low yield, scarcely equal to the average of Ire- 

 land, 24 bushels. 



In France, according to Alexander Moreau de Jonnes, in his Statisiique de VAgri- 

 culture 0f France, the average yield was 8 hectoliters per hectare, or a little more 

 than 9 bushels per acre. In 1873, over 11 bushels; in 1840, 14 bushels. It maybe 

 assumed that the yield per acre in France is now very nearly doable the rate two 



