54 A YEAR IN AGRICULTURE 



the temperate regions of both Americas. We are particularly 

 interested in the history of corn after the discovery of Amer- 

 ica because of its importance as a food crop to the early 

 colonists. John Fiske, in his history of the discovery of 

 America, declares that Indian corn was of " incalculable 

 advantage to the English settlers of New England, who would 

 have found it much harder to gain a secure foothold upon 

 the soil if they had had to begin by preparing it for wheat 

 and rye without the aid of the beautiful and beneficent 

 American plant." 



Importance of the corn crop. It is not easy to appreciate 

 the importance of corn in the agriculture of the United 

 States. Most people are aware of the fact that corn is our 

 principal grain crop. Many do not know how important 

 it is in comparison with other grain crops. The following 

 table, compiled from the estimates of the Bureau of Sta- 

 tistics of the United States Department of Agriculture, will 

 furnish a basis for some interesting and instructive com- 

 parisons of the relative importance cf a number of the crops 

 for the year 1910: 



Acreage 



Wheat 49,205,000 



Oats 35,288,000 



Barley 7,257,000 



Rye 2,028,000 



Rice 722,800 



Buckwheat 826,000 



Potatoes 3,591,000 



Production Value, Dec. 1 



695,443,000 $ 621,443,000 



1,126,765,000 384,716,000 



162,227,000 93,785,000 



33,039,000 23,840,000 



24,510,000 16,624,000 



17,239,000 11,321,000 



338,811,000 187,985,000 



Total 98,917,800 2,398,039,000 $1,339,714,000 



Corn 114,002,000 3,125,713,000 1,523,968,000 



