FIBER CROPS 



365 



oats, and constitutes about one-twelfth the total area in all field 

 and garden crops, pasture excepted. The maximum acreage for 

 a single year was a little over thirty millions in 1904. Accord- 

 ing to the twelfth census the area in cotton and maize in the 

 ten principal cotton states was about the same, maize being 



Percentage of the improved farm land In cotton in 1899 



slightly in the lead. These two crops constituted 81 per cent, of 

 the area in all crops in the ten cotton states, pasture excepted. 

 The average annual production of cotton for the four crop 

 years of 1902 to 1905 inclusive, compared with the four corres- 

 ponding crop years of the previous decade has been, according 

 to the estimates of the United States Department of Agriculture, 

 as follows: 



These figures show an enormous development in the cotton 

 industry in a decade, not so much in the area under cultivation 



