UNITED STATES, THE CENSUS OF. 



851 



1880, which does not include Alaska, is as fol- 

 lows, the figures representing square miles: 



The reader is referred to the maps showing 

 the comparative density of the population in 

 1830 and in 1880 ; also to the maps showing 

 the location and density of the foreign and of 

 the colored population. 



The census returns of cereals represent the 

 crops for 1879. The acreage is now reported 

 for the first time. The figures fur the United 

 States show that 1,997,717 acres were planted 

 with barley, 848,389 with buckwheat, 62,368,- 

 869 with Indian corn, 16,144,593 with oats, 

 1,842,303 with rye, and 35,430,052 with wheat. 

 The production in bushels was: barley, 44,- 

 113,495; buckwheat, 11,817,327; Indian corn, 

 1,754,861,535 ; oats, 407,858,999 ; rye, 19,831,- 

 595; and wheat, 459,479,505. The yield of 

 1869, as reported by the census of 1870, was: 

 barley, 29,761,305 bushels ; buckwheat, 9,821,- 

 721 ; Indian corn, 760,944,549; oats, 282,107,- 

 157 ; rye, 16,918,795 ; wheat, 287,745,626. 



" The most striking suggestion of these fig- 

 ures," says Mr. J. R. Dodge, the special agent 

 for the collection of statistics of agriculture, 

 " is the unprecedented advance in production 

 during the last decade, amounting to nearly 

 one hundred per cent for all kinds taken to- 

 gether, while the increase of the ten years pre- 

 ceding was but twelve per cent. This wide 

 difference is largely real, from obvious causes, 

 though in part only apparent, by reason of the 

 partial failure of the corn-crop of 1869 and the 

 heavy yield of 1879. The cereal increase be- 

 tween 1850 and 1860, a period of great agri- 

 cultural growth, was forty-three per cent, as 

 reported by the census." The apparent in- 

 crease in corn is one hundred and thirty-three 

 per cent, the three great corn-growing States, 

 Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri, producing in 1879 

 more than the entire country in 1869. The 

 advance in Illinois from 129,921,395 to 327,- 

 796,895 bushels of corn is in part the result of 

 extension of area, but largely due to the fact 

 that the crop of 1869 was a partial failure by 

 reason of drought. The cotton States show a 

 gain of about forty per cent in corn since 1869. 

 The production in Kansas has increased from 

 17,025,525 to 106,791,482 bushels, which is due 

 chiefly to immigration and cheap and fertile 

 lands; in Iowa, from 68,935,065 to 276,093,- 

 295 ; and in Missouri, from 66,034,075 to 203,- 

 464,620. 



A comparatively steady and rapid increase 

 of wheat-growing is shown by a comparison 

 with former enumerations, the gain being sev- 

 enty-three per cent in the last decade, and 

 sixty-six and sixty, respectively, in those im- 

 mediately preceding. While all the States and 

 Territories, except Florida and "Wyoming, re- 

 port wheat, several on the Atlantic and Gulf 

 coasts show diminished production, and seven 

 tenths of the entire crop is produced in nine 

 States, in the following order of precedence: 

 Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, 

 Iowa, California, Missouri, Wisconsin. There 

 has been for several years an increasing inter- 

 est in wheat-culture in all of the Southern 

 States, especially in the Piedmont regions of 

 the Carolinas and Georgia, and in the northern 

 central counties of Texas ; and there has been 

 a disposition to experiment in the more south- 

 ern portions of the cotton belt, even in Lou- 

 isiana and Florida, confined in the former 

 State to northern parishes on the uplands be- 

 tween the Washita and Red Rivers. The low 

 rate of yield in the Southern States is not 

 altogether due to unsuitable soil or unfavor- 

 able climatic condition, but to the practice of 

 using wheat-fields for winter pasture a con- 

 sideration often deemed more important than 

 the harvesting of the ripened grain. The sea- 

 son of 1879 was also exceptionably unfavorable 

 in this region. The average yield is but five 

 or six bushels in several of these States. 



The production of oats has been extended 

 mainly in the West and South. Four tenths 

 of the area of this crop, with nearly half of its 



