32S READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



amount which they received for their crops, because in many 

 cases the crops were fed to animals on the farms. But the values 

 given represented the amounts which farmers could have got for 

 the crops had they sold them in the local markets. For our pur- 

 poses it is sufficient to state that the figures here quoted represent 

 the farm values of all farm crops for both 1909 and 1899. In 

 order to arrive at a figure representing the average value of all 

 crops per acre of land in crops, I have assembled for 1909 and 

 1899 all crops for which it is possible to secure satisfactory acre- 

 age reports and value reports at both censuses. For this purpose 

 it was necessary to eliminate an important group of farm products, 

 namely, orchard fruits, grapes, tropical fruits, and nuts. In these 

 cases it is almost impossible to secure a statement of the exact 

 number of acres involved, inasmuch as hundreds of thousands of 

 farmers have small numbers of fruit trees in and around their 

 yards for which it is impossible for them to report acreage. But 

 inasmuch as we are able to eliminate the values of these crops for 

 both years and do not include the acreage figures, the figures 

 which remain are comparable. It should be noted in passing that 

 these crops are far from the top of the list when we consider all 

 farm crops. Several small crops must also be eliminated, but 

 these are, practically speaking, insignificant. Among these are 

 maple sugar and syrup, for which there were no acreage reports, 

 and also the forest products of farms. The total value of crops 

 for which reports of acreage were secured in both 1909 and 

 1899 amounted in 1909 to $5,073,997,594, and in 1899 to 

 $2,768,339,569. In both cases they amounted to more than 90 

 per cent of all crops as measured by value. The increase in the 

 value of these crops was $2,305,658,025, or 83.3 per cent. 



Turning now to the acreage of these crops, I wish to note 

 that in 1909 the acreage of all crops with acreage reports was 

 311,293,382, and for 1899 the acreage was 283,218,280. The 

 increase in the acreage, therefore, amounted to 28,075,102 acres, 

 or only 9.9 per cent during the decade. It is perfectly clear from 

 these figures, even if we went no further, that the average value 

 of farm crops per acre of farm land under cultivation was greatly 

 increased. It amounted to $16.30 in 1909 as compared with 



