AGRICULTURE. 



AGRICULTURE. As usual, we are unable 

 to give any thing more than approximate esti- 

 mates of the crops of 1870, in this volume, 

 owing to the early date at which it is put to 

 press. The estimates are, however, unusually 

 full. "We give first the returns of the crops in 

 1809 as obtained by the census of 1870, pre- 

 mising that most of them are yet only in round 

 numbers, and hence ^only approximately ac- 

 curate. 



The year 1870 was, in general, one of fair 

 though not excessive productiveness. The year 

 was not a remarkably favorable one for Wheat, 

 and the acreage was considerably less than that 

 of the previous year. The quality is greatly 

 superior to that of 1869. The entire crop is 

 estimated at 216,000,000 bushels, a decrease 

 of 48,006,000 bushels below that of 1869, but 

 the quality is at least fifteen per cent, better. 



Of Indian Corn the crop is the largest ever 

 known, though the increase in the production 

 of this grain is hardly keeping pace with the 

 increase in the population. The yield of 1859, 

 the year when agricultural products were in- 



corporated in the census of 1860, was in round 

 numbers 838,000,000 bushels. The increase in 

 population in the ten years which followed 

 was just about twenty per cent., and the crop 

 of 1869 should have been 1,005,000,000 bushels. 

 It was only 874,000,000, or but five per cent, 

 increase. The crop of 1870 makes amends for 

 this deficiency, being estimated at 1,100,000,- 

 000 bushels. Assuming, which is very near 

 the truth, that the acreage of Indian corn was 

 89,000,000 acres against about 38,000,000 acres 

 in 1869, the average yield would be about 28 

 bushels to the acre, against an average of 26.42 

 bushels in 1869. 



The Eye crop was about 21,125,000 bushels, 

 or about four per cent, below the crop of 1869. 

 The quality was generally good. This grain 

 is quite largely grown for pasturage in the 

 Southern States. 



Barley was also somewhat less in quantity 

 than in 1869, the aggregate being about 27,- 

 600,000 bushels. 



The Buckwheat crop was about 16,500,000 

 bushels, a slight falling off from the crop of 1869. 



