25 



chinery is heard it will drown your eloquence, and where the light of 

 the forge and of the blast furnace is seen it will let light in upon your 

 reasoning. I am willing for one to submit it to an audience of agri- 

 cultural people, as we shall be compelled to do; and, sir, I for one shall 

 rest content with their verdict. [Loud applause. ] 



I will print with my remarks a table of the products of agriculture 

 for 1859 and 1879, the two census years that afford the basis of my 

 comparisons, with the letter of Professor Dodge, the Statistician of the 

 Bureau of Agriculture, who prepared the table at my request. His 

 eminent ability, perfect fairness, and complete knowledge of the subject 

 no one will question. I have but this to add: the same elements and 

 calculations enter into the results for both years, and for any increase or 

 diminution of product for one year there must be a corresponding in ' 

 crease or diminution for the other, and the comparative difference be- 

 tween the two years will remain, and remain also in the comparisons I 

 have made: 



UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE, 



DIVISION OP STATISTICS, 

 Washington, D. C., April 28, 1884. 



SIR : In response to your inquiry for the values of the products of agriculture 

 of the years 1859 and 1879, respectively, including what is reported by the cen- 

 sus and also estimates of farm production unreported and products of publio 

 lands and village lots as well, I respectfully submit the following statement : 

 [See table on pages 26 and 27.] 



This tabulation includes the items returned by the farm enumerators of the 

 eighth and tenth censuses. It also adds, for both periods, the estimated pro- 

 duction of poultry and eggs, the milk consumed, and butter and cheese made 

 on ranches and in villages and towns as well as on farms. It gives the esti- 

 mated production of meats in 1880 to correspond with the returns of such prod- 

 ucts in 1860. 



In addition to all these products the list is still incomplete, and should include 

 the annual increase or " betterment " of farm stock, exclusive of animals slaugh- 

 tered, and a great variety of minor products, such as cotton-seed, the castor 

 bean, broom-corn, various millets used as grains, volatile oils, &c. 



Pasturage is not mentioned in the census, because it enters into the meat 

 product. Nor is the stover and straw of more than a hundred million acres of 

 grain. Of the products named above less than half the corn and a small part 

 of the hay is duplicated in the meats, and a portion of that is offset by the un- 

 enumerated rough fodder which goes to the support of horses, mules, and 

 working oxen, which should properly be counted in the values of products. 



In brief, taking everything into consideration, I make the net value of all 

 agricultural production on farms, ranches, and in town and village lots, in 

 round numbers, $1,600,000,000 for the crop-year 1859, returned by the census in 

 1860, and 83,600,000,000 for the year 1879. As to the items, though not quite com- 

 plete or absolutely beyond any necessary revision, no possible review could 

 materially change essentially the comparison of the two periods. 



I may be permitted to say that I had charge of the collection of the agricult- 

 ural statistics of the tenth census and of the annual crop returns of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture for a large portion of the period between 1860 and 1880, and 

 that I know of no one else who has ever made special study of this subject. It 

 should be remembered that no census has ever yet included all production in 

 Its schedules, and that no two agree in their list of products reported. As to 

 values, the returns were notoriously incomplete, and from the difficulty and 

 complexity of the subject must necessarily have been, the true results being 

 only obtainable by tests of quantities returned and their values in average farm 

 prices. 



Kespectfully, 



J. K. DODGE, Statistician. 



To Hon. FRANK HISCOCK, 



