7 i8 UNITED STATES STATISTICS 



Flax. The most valuable of the smaller crops was flaxseed with an acreage in 1911 of 

 2 '757' oo (about two-thirds in the Dakotas; most of the remainder in Montana and Iowa), 

 which is more than in any preceding year except 1902, 1903 and 1907, a production of 

 19,370,000 bu., which was more than in 1910, but less than in any other year in the pre- 

 ceding decade. The value, $35,272,000, was exceeded only by that of the record crop of 1909, 

 and the average farm price was greater than in any year except 1910, when the short crop 

 made it phenomenally high. In 1912 the crop was much larger, 28,073,000 bu. (or 44.1 % 

 above the five-year average), valued at $32,202,000 (about 32.4% above). 



Rye. The rye crop of 1911 was 33, 119,000 bu. (34,897,000 in 1910) from 2,127,000 acres, 

 being smaller than in 1902, 1906, or 1910; but the farm price per bushel, 83.2 cents, was greater 

 than in any year except 1867, 1868 and 1881, and the total farm value, $27,557,000, was 

 the highest known. The 1912 crop was 35,664,000 bushels, the largest on record, being 10% 

 above the five-year average. Prices fell, and the total value was only 23,636,000. 



Sugar. The sugar beet crop of 1911 was 599,500 tons, worth more than $24,000,000; both 

 in quantity and value it was nearly one-fourth greater than the five-year average. In 1912 

 the crop was nearly 700,000 tons. Of cane sugar the crop in 1912 was small because of 

 floods in the Mississippi Valley. 



Hops. The crop of hops in 1911 was small, only 40,000,000 Ibs., compared with 49,634,- 

 ooo in 1910 and 57,510,000 in 1907, but the average price a pound was nearly twice the aver- 

 age of preceding years, and the crop value, $15,500,000, was much more than twice as great as 

 the average for the preceding five years. In 1912 the crop increased to 44,500,000 Ibs., but 

 prices fell and the total value was only about $11,000,000. 



Rice. Rice was grown in 1911 on 696,000 acres (720,000 in 1909 and 723,000 in 1910) 

 and the crop, 22,934,000 bu., though less than that of 1910 or 1909, was considerably above 

 the five-year average. The farm value of the crop, $18,274,000, was more than in any other 

 year except 1909, when the price per bushel was higher. In 1912 the crop suffered from floods 

 but was probably larger than in any year except 1909; its value was $23,423,000. 



Buckwheat. The buckwheat crop of 1911, 17,549,000 bu., was a little less than that for 

 1910, 17,598,000 bu. (grown on 860,000 A.; 1911 acreage, 833,000), but much larger than 

 for any other year in the last decade. The average farm price a bushel was 72.6 c., exceeded 

 only in 1908 (75.6 c.), and the farm value of the crop much above the five-year average. 

 In 1912 the crop was even larger, about 19,124,000 bu.; value about $12,000,000. 



Animals. The total value of animal products in 1912 was about $3,395,000,000; being 

 more than in 1911 but less than in 1910. The number of horses on January I, 1912, 20,509,- 

 ooo, was larger than in 1911 or in any other year except 1909 and 1910 and the average 

 value and the total value ($2,172,694,000) larger than in any year except 1910 and 1911. 

 The number of mules, 4,362,000, was greater than in any preceding year, and average value 

 ($120.51) and aggregate farm value ($525,657,000) were exceeded in 1911 only. The num- 

 ber of milch cows, 20,699,000, was the smallest since 1906; the average value ($39.39) and the 

 total ($815,414,000), were exceeded only in 1911. Other neat cattle numbered 37,260,000, 

 much less than for any year in the decade, but the average- value, $21.20, was higher; the 

 total value was less than for any year since 1906. The number, 52,362,000, and total 

 value, 8181,170,000, of sheep, also, were less than since 1906; and the average value, $3.46, 

 was far below the five-year average,- that for 1909 alone was lower. Swine numbered 65,- 

 410,000, a little less than in 1910, but far more than in any other year; the average farm 

 price was exceeded in 1910 and in 1-911, and the aggregate value only in 1911. 



Plant Industry. The U.S. department of agriculture established about twelve years ago 

 its bureau of plant industry whose work has consisted largely of searching the world for grain, 

 fruits, grasses, etc. and ascertaining by experiments which of them might be useful in the 

 United States. Recently a force of 25 trained explorers have been busy in this work and 

 some 34,000 varieties of plants have been imported and experimented with, their seeds 

 and progeny being sent out to private breeders and experimenters. Mr. E. H. Wilson, of 

 the Arnold Arboretum, Boston, Mass., who has distinguished himsel* in similar work and 

 is said to have introduced into America more new plants than any other man, in 1912 re- 

 ceived from the Royal Horticultural Society of Great Britain the Victoria Medal of Honour 

 never before conferred on any one outside of the British Isles. 



The other activities of the Federal department of agriculture are manifold: the forest 

 service and the weather bureau are subdivisions; meat inspection and the enforcement of 

 the Federal food and drugs act are quasi-police functions of the department carried on by a 

 bureau of animal industry, which, besides, investigates and eradicates diseases of animals, ex- 

 periments in breeding and feeding, and works for the improvement of the dairy industry; 

 and the department has experiment stations and co-operates with state agricultural experi- 

 ment stations, and through its bureau of soils makes soil surveys sometimes with the aid 

 of state organisations. Other bureaus in the department are those of chemistry, entomology 

 and biological survey. About 2,000 publications of the department appear each year in these 

 different fields and the total number distributed in the year 1910-1 1 was 27,595,000. 



MINERAL PRODUCTS. Total value, 1911, $1,918,326,253. This was 3.65% less than in 

 1910 and 7.4% less than in 1907, the only year when mineral products were valued at more 

 than $2,000,000,000. But the value in 1911 was greater than in 1908 (following the panic 



