94 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



brought into any sort of comparison with the data of earlier 

 or later reports. Let us hope that the new permanent Cen- 

 sus Bureau will do more consecutive work, and that we 

 shall be able to follow matters out to more definite con- 

 clusions hereafter. 



What I would like to illustrate now, is the unequal de- 

 velopment of different lines of agriculture. Of course Ave 

 all know in a general way that the aspects of our agriculture 

 are rapidly changing, and that the crops which were most 

 prominent fifty years ago are not necessarily of the same 

 relative importance now. We all know that some branches 

 of agriculture have developed more rapidly than others. 

 But we have hardl}^ suspected how great are these inequali- 

 ties, nor how rapid are some of the changes. Still less do 

 we usually think that these changes follow any general law. 

 Nevertheless, I believe these changes could all be illustrated 

 and the general law established if only we had statistics 

 just a little more complete, consecutive and coherent. 



Merely as a sketch of my notion of the situation, I will 

 present the following figures ^ selected almost at random 

 from the census rei)ort. They show the rate of develop- 

 ment in certain specified lines of agricultural industry in 

 the United States during the last decade. 



The comparatively small increase in the number of milch 

 cows is remarkable and suspicious. It suggests an error 

 somewhere. An increase of 13 per cent, however, in the 

 number of horses within ten years is not so bad for this 

 " horseless age." 



