4 AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS 



products used on f corns and ranches are not included in the figures used for 

 the table and chart. The farm commodity price index did not rise as rapidly 

 as cash receipts during the period which signifies that crop and livestock pro- 

 duction was increased substantially. Cash receipts by counties, pages 8 and 9, 

 present a comparison of 1950 and 1951 income and the division of income be- 

 tween crops, livestock and government payments. 



All Crops, acreage and value of crop production, page 10, emphasizes the 

 importance of irrigation to Montana's agriculture. The value of crops harvested 

 from irrigated land has averaged about 33 percent of the total since 1937, 

 but was much larger during drought years. During 1936, a year of severe 

 drought, the value of crops taken from irrigated land amounted to 63 percent 

 of the total. 



Montana Crops and Livestock Diuing 1950 and 1951, pages 11-13, is a 

 summary of factors affecting crop production and livestock marketings. 

 Weather conditions in various parts of the state during these years were ex- 

 treme in several respects but the over-all agricultural production continued 

 at a high level. 



Farm Wage Rates, page 14, are only one of several indications that farm 

 expenses have risen with farm income during recent years. Although agri- 

 culture is now highly mechanized, hired workers are essential to farming and 

 ranching and particularly so during the planting and harvesting periods. 

 Mechanization requires labor of more skill and in some degree accounts for 

 the high wages now paid for hired help. 



State Crop Tables, pages 15-25, present total, irrigated and non-irrigated 

 data for the period 1944-51. Crops which are grown completely on irrigated 

 land or on non-irrigated land are so noted in the headings. Several grass 

 and legume seed crops hove been added to the list since publication of the 

 last bulletin and their data appear on page 24. 



State Livestock Tables, pages 26-31, are similar to those in other bulletins 

 and contain revised data for the years 1944-51. Livestock inventory numbers 

 are shown by age and sex groups and the tables cover disposition value and 

 income. 



Acreage of Wheat Sprayed for Weeds, pages 32 and 33, is increasing in 

 Montana and chemical treatment of grains for control of weeds is now a big 

 business. The number of wheat acres sprayed by kind and cropping practices 

 appear in the table. 



Wheat Acreages and Yields by Cropping Practices, pages 34-41, for the 

 years 1945 and 1951 point up the increase in summer fallowed acreage. The 

 practice of fallowing winter wheat in Montana has been common for many 

 years and is becoming more prominent with spring wheat. Abandonment of 

 acreage is consistently smaller and the yields are larger with dry-land wheat 

 grown on summer fallowed land as compared with that grown on land con- 

 tinuously cropped. The differences ore particularly significant in dry years 

 such as 1949. 



Grain Storage Facilities, page 42, indicate that the over-all bin space is 

 adequate for storing grains in Montana. For the state as a whole, the crops of 

 wheat, barley and oats produced in 1948, occupied about 80 percent of the com- 

 bined storage space on farms and in commercial elevators. Some counties 

 produced more grain than could be stored which meant that grain deliveries 



