376 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



hundred years ago. It is not much over half a century since the average rate oi France 

 passed the present yield in this country. 



EWdence from Russia is not very explicit, though its tenor is favorable to gradual 

 increase of rate of yield. It has conditions much like our own, large areas of new 

 and cheap lands, which tend to prevent rapid change of rate, while the elements of 

 improvement are in active movement locally. As to this country, the average has 

 not materially increased for the whole area, because that area is geographically 

 changing. It is shifting from east to west and to northwest, taking in fresh prairie 

 lands and giving up to grass and other crops a part of the more eastern acreage. Yet, 

 on the whole, it is not so much abandonment of older areas as the taking up of west- 

 ern lands in the increase of breadth. This change perpetuates substantially the 

 original conditions, and keeps the average nearly the same, viz, about 12 bushels per 

 acre for a series of years throughout the entire breadth in -vVheat. 



I find no evidence that the yield is decreasing in this country. In a given field in 

 the spring-wheat region, the rate will increase for a year or two after breaking, then 

 begin to decline, not from soil exhaustion, but from preoccupation of the soil with 

 weeds. Yet there is evidence that the rate of yield is increasing in Western New York, 

 Southern Michigan, and the wheat counties of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, and in 

 Maryland, where some semblance of rotation exists and cultivation has some pretense 

 of a scientific basis. In those regions the average is already about the same as in 

 France, and is 20 to .50 per cent, higher than the general average. In 1879 the areas 

 above mentioned averaged about 18 bushels per acre, while spring wheat, grown year 

 after year amid weeds and without any real cultivation of the soil, only produced 11 

 bushels per acre. 



THE rOTATOES OF THE WOELD. 



The importance of potatoes as an article of food, and the relation of 

 their production as well as their consumption to grain production, make 

 it all the more desirable to treat of the statistics of this farm product, 

 since, on account of the present excellent means of transportation, it is 

 beginning to be a considerable factor in international commerce. As 

 may be seen in the following table, the import of potatoes is already a 

 large item in the food supply of England, of Switzerland, and of the 

 United States. On the other hand, the export from Germany and 

 France is always quite large, and of late years rapidly on the increase. 



This table is given on the authority of the eminent statistician, Dr, 

 F. X. Von Neumann-Spallart : 



Ooantries. 



Average of past years. 



Metric tons. 



Millions 

 of hec- 

 toliters. 



Tears. 



Beoent product. 



Metric tons. 



Millioaa 

 of hec- 

 toliters. 



Crcrmany 



Kaasla 



France 



Austi'ia 



Uuit(Mi States .. 



Ireland , 



(ireat Britain 



Belgium ^.,.. 



Hungary 



Sweden 



Spain 



Netlieilands 



rtaly 



Norway 



Finland 



Dca«inrk 



Australian colonies. 

 Portugal 



Total. 



21, 863, 000 



12, 110, 000 



11, 295, 948 



7, 208, 910 



4,593,910 



3, 589, 750 



2, 772, 325 



2, 279, 600 



1, 681, 314 



1, 606, 000 



1, 585, 200 



1, 491, 641 



704, 9.S8 



630, 412 



380, 600 



362, 309 



292, 967 



280. 092 



252. 75 



140. 00 



130. 59 



83.34 



63.11 



41.50 



32.05 



26.35 



19.42 



18.57 



18.33 



17. 24 



8.14 



7.29 



4.40? 



4.19 



3.39 



3.24 



1881 

 1881 

 1882 

 1882 

 1882 



1878 

 1881 

 1882 

 1882 



(?) 

 1881 

 1870-'81 

 1875 

 1881 

 1881 

 1881 

 (?) 



25, 491, 022 



14, 732, 420 



9, 687. 654 



7, 452, 407 



5,211,668 



5, 638, 800 



2, 204. 200 



3, 694, 714 

 1, 580, 000 

 1, SS.'), 200 

 1, 973, 050 



704, 302 

 - 018,698 

 388, 103 

 ;;61. 832 

 370, 598 

 280, 602 



294.7 



170 3 



112.0 



86.2 



(0 ■-' 



74,729,566 863.90 



81,976,020 



942.8 



Note. — 1 metric ton=2,204.C pounds. 1 lioctoliter=2.8375 bashels. 



According to the figures for areas in potato culture, the latter has of 

 late years been considerably expanded in almost all countries. 



