68 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



relative importance of the cereal crops, from the standpoint both 

 of acreage devoted to their production and of the value of the 

 product as compared with the acreage and value of all crops. 



The North Central division ranked first in the production of 

 cereals, not only in 1899 but also in 1889 and in 1879.1 It 

 ranked first also in the production of hay.^ That it is the region 

 of increasing average size of farms and of increasing crop acreage 

 per person engaged in farm work has already been shown. The 

 North Central States will thAefore furnish the best field for a 

 study of the effects of farm machinery. 



Among the states of the North Central division there were 

 seven which, for the year 1899, reported that over 70 per cent 

 of their total crop acreage was in cereals, and also that the value 

 of their cereal crops for that year constituted more than 70 per 

 cent of the value of their total crop production.* The seven states 

 and the per cent of their reported cereal acreage and cereal crop 

 values to their total crop acreage and crop values, respectively, are 

 shown in the table at the top of page 6gJ 



The hay and forage acreage of these seven states, in 1 899, was 

 35.6 per cent of the total hay and forage acreage of the United 

 States ^ and their acreage in cereals and hay and . forage was 



1 Twelfth Census, Agriculture, Vol. II, p. 63. 



2 Idtcf., p. 215. 



8 Oklahoma is the only other state or territory in the Union which reported 

 so high a per cent of acreage and value in cereals foi- the year 1899. But no 

 separate report was returned for Oklahoma in 1880, and it is, therefore, necessarily 

 omitted from this study. 



* Twelfth Census, Agriculture, Vol. II, p. 62. ^ Id/d., p. 215. 



