MEASURING TOTAL CROP PRODUCTION 



75 



of prices as will make it to the advantage of the farmer to keep 

 his land in good heart, because that will make for larger production 

 and more economical production. . 



MEASURING TOTAL CROP PRODUCTION 



chapter does not follow the same line of thought as the 

 J- other chapters. It has an indirect bearing, however, and 

 we believe the suggested method of measuring total crop production 

 to be of some value. 



Small crops ordinarily bring the farming class more money 

 than large crops. Nevertheless, in the long run big crops mean 

 prosperity to the country as a whole. To judge just when crops 

 as a whole are large and when they are small, a method has been 

 devised, which may be illustrated as follows : 



In 1918, the United States produced 2,582,814,000 bushels of 

 corn, 917,100,000 bushels of wheat, 89,833,000 tons of hay, 11,- 

 700,000 bales of cotton, etc. Now, to ascertain total crop produc- 

 tion, it is obviously impossible to add together bushels, tons, bales, 

 etc. We can add together the value of the crops, but the price 

 level shifts from year to year, and this method is not satisfactory. 



Now, the 1907-1916 ten-year average price of corn was 61 

 cents, of wheat 96.2 cents, of hay $11.49 a ton, of cotton $59 a 

 bale, etc. A ten-year average illustrates the relative economic 

 emphasis. These prices are therefore used as constant factors, 

 applicable to any crop year. 



The 1918 corn crop of 2,582,814,000 bushels, converted into 

 economic crop units by multiplying by 61, equals 157,500,000,000. 

 The 1918 wheat crop of 917,100,000 bushels, multiplied by 96.2, 

 equals 63,600,000,000. The same thing done with the thirteen 

 leading crops gives 559,900,000,000 crop units produced by the 

 United States in 1918, or 5,270 crop units per capita. 



The per capita production of crop units since 1880 has been 

 AS follows: 



