AGRICULTURE. 137 



Table 40 shows for the average farm in each region for 

 which we have statistics (separating Mobile County from 

 Baldwin and Escambia as before) for 1909 the number of 

 cattle, horses, sheep, hogs, etc., sold or slaughtered, the 

 number of chickens and eggs produced and sold, the amount 

 of wool, milk, butter and honey produced, and the value of 

 each, with certain additions and limitations as indicated. 

 The total value of animal products cannot be given very 

 exactly, for the census does not give the value of milk and 

 cream consumed on farms ; but probably most of that either 

 reappears as butter or is fed to live-stock, so that the omis- 

 sion does not make much difference. The census makes no 

 returns of hides and feathers, or of fish, rabbits and other 

 game occasionally sold by farmers, and apparently none of 

 animals killed and paid for by railroads, automobilists, etc., 

 but those items are relatively insignificant in this part of 

 the country. 



The data in the table are given per farm, but not per 

 acre, for most of the animals are raised on free range or in 

 woodland pastures, so that they bear little relation either to 

 the amount of improved land or to the total farm acreage. 

 The difference between the quantity produced and the quan- 

 tity sold, where both figures are given, gives some idea of 

 how much of that particular kind of food the average farm 

 family consumes in a year, and some interesting differences 

 between different regions in that respect can be noted. 



The total value of animal products in any region is 

 roughly proportional to the urban population, for milk and 

 butter, chickens and eggs especially milk are marketed 

 chiefly in near-by cities. For this reason Mobile County is 

 far ahead of other parts of southern Alabama in most ani- 

 mal products ; and in amount of milk sold per farm its aver- 

 age is over twenty times the State average. The animal 

 products also vary inversely with the degree of specializa- 

 tion in cotton, the western red hills and the southwestern 

 pine hills representing nearly the two extremes within the 

 area treated. There is abundant testimony which will 

 doubtless be corroborated when the agricultural results of 

 this year's census are published to the effect that cotton has 

 declined in importance in the last decade and live-stock in- 

 creased correspondingly; and this has led to the establish- 

 ment of a meat-packing plant at Andalusia. The lime-sink 

 region leads in the production of pork, and in animals 



6 AR 



