466 A GRICUL TURE. 



" The exports of American labor products show equally disparaging and 

 discouraging exhibits : 



Agriculture. Manufactures. 



In 1881 $730394.943 $89,219,380 



In 1888 500,840,086 130,300,087 



" An increase during these seven years, in our exports of manufactures, of 

 46 per cent, and a decrease in those years, of agricultural products, of 31 per 

 cent. 



"VALUES OF STAPLE CROPS. 



In 1866 the wheat, corn, rye, barley, buckwheat, hay, oats, 



potatoes, cotton, and tobacco sold for $2,007,462,231 



The same crops for the year 1884, eighteen years later, sold 



for 2,043,500,481 



"Notwithstanding the cultivated acreage had nearly doubled, and farm 

 hands had doubled, and agricultural implements and machinery had vastly 

 improved, yet the crops named for the year 1884 sold for only thirty-six 

 millions, or less than 2 per cent more than they did for the year 1866. 



" The average price of our cereal crops, in 1867, was very nearly one dollar 

 per bushel, and in the year 1887 it was less than fifty cents per bushel. The 

 loss on the crop of 1887, as compared with that of 1867, was over thirteen 

 hundred million dollars. 



" For ten years from 1867, the average value of yield per acre of oats was 

 $12.10. For the past six years the average value has been less than eight 

 dollars, and is lower to-day than ever before in our history. For the period 

 named, the average value per acre, in yield of wheat, was $14.39; f r tne 

 past six years it has been less than $9. For the period named, the average 

 value per acre, in yield of corn, was $14.16; for the past six years it has 

 averaged less than $9 per acre. The average value per acre, in yield of all 

 our crops, in 1867, was $19; in 1887, twenty years later, it was about nine 

 dollars. 



" To show that this depression in prices, this shrinkage in values, does not 

 proceed from local conditions, and is not confined to any section, or crop, or 

 department of husbandry, let us examine the statistics of the four leading 

 staple crops of the country : 



"WHEAT. 



Crop. ' Bushels. Price. Value. 



1885 421,086,160 $1.10 $463,194,776 



1889 490,560,000 .86 to-day. 421,881,600 



" As will be seen, the crop of 1889 exceeded the crop of 1885 by 69,473,840 

 bushels, yet the crop of 1885 would have brought, at point of export, 

 $41,313,186 more than that of 1889. 



" The wheat crop of 1880, although 41,090,595 bushels less than the crop 

 of 1889, would have brought, at point of export, $280,036,551 more money. 



