310 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



accounts for that vast internal and foreign commerce out of 

 which has grown so much of our financial success. It is not 

 necessary to go back a half century, or even twenty-five 

 years, to obtain the most gratifying evidence of our prog- 

 ress in the work of tilling the soil. But, starting in 1870, 

 at which time we had reached an enormous production in 

 proportion to our population, and making our comparisons 

 with the returns of 1880, we may learn what can be accom- 

 plished in a single decade by a people constantly increasing 

 in numl:)ers and occupying new lands. In 1870 the wheat 

 crop was 287,745,62(3 bushels; in 1880 it was 459,667,032 

 bushels. In 1870 the amount of cotton raised was 4,352,317 

 bales; in 1880, more than 6,000,000 bales. In 1870 the 

 amount of Indian corn raised was 760,940,594 bushels ; in 

 1880 the amount was 1,754,449,435 bushels. In 1870 the 

 crop of oats reached 282,107,157 bushels; in 1880,407,- 

 859,033 bushels. In 1870 the tobacco crop amounted to 

 262,735,341 pounds; in 1880 it amounted to 473,107,573 

 pounds. The increase of agricultural products was nearly 

 one hundred per cent in these ten years, and in the last 

 year of this decade, out of this vast increase of our crops 

 and products, our cattle export rose from $13,000,000 to 

 $14,000,000; corn, from $43,000,000 to $50,000,000; 

 wheat, from $167,698,000 to $190,546,000; flour, from 

 $35,000,000 to $45,000,000; cotton, from $209,852,000 to 

 $247,534,391 ; beef, from $7,000,000 to $12,000,000; lard, 

 from $28,000,000 to $35,000,000 ; and pork, from $5,000,000 

 to $8,000,000, annually. 



The law of this vast and growing industry, as we all 

 know, is the cultivation of those crops which are adapted to 

 a local market, and the occupation of lands lying near that 

 market. Not yet has this law become universal, it is true ; 

 but it applies to all the other and thickly settled sections of 

 our country, and goes with diversified industries wherever 

 they create large cities and towns. Fifty years ago the 

 farmer was compelled to seek his market near home, on 

 account of the difficulty which attended the transportation 

 of his crops. But the settling of new and remote lands and 

 improved modes of transportation rendered the growing of 

 the great staples necessary ; and corn, wheat and provisions 



