AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES. 467 



1860 to 1870, average price per bushel $1.99 



1870 to 1880, average price per bushel 1.38 



1880 to 1887, average price per bushel 1.07 



Price to-day, 86 cents at point of export. 



" So that the wheat farmer to-day pays, of the products of his labor, two 

 and one-third times as much for a dollar as he did from 1860 to 1870. 



" CORN. 



Crop. Bushels. Value. 



1888 1,987,790,000 $677,561,580 



1889 2,112,892,000 597,918,820 



" So, while the crop of 1889 exceeded that of 1888 by 125,102,000 bushels, 

 yet it would have brought, at point of export, $79,642,760 less money. 



Cents. 



1860 to 1870, average price per bushel . 96 



1870 to 1880, average price per bushel 63 



1880 to 1887, average price per bushel 46 



Price to-day 37 



" So that the corn farmer to-day pays, in the products of his labor, over 

 two and one-half times as much for a dollar as he did during the years 1860 

 to 1870. Indeed, throughout the great corn belt of the Northwest and West, 

 it is claimed that he cannot sell it to-day at a price covering the cost of its 

 production. The State Board of Agriculture of the great corn State of Illinois 

 recently published, officially, that the farmers of that State lost on the corn 

 crop of last year $9,935,823; that is, it cost that much more to produce it 

 than it is worth on the market. 



"The yield of the three great staple crops of corn, wheat, and oats, for 

 1889, exceeded the yield of 1888 by 242,355,840 bushels, and yet the crop of 

 1888 was worth $144,599,178 more to the farmers. 



" COTTON. 



Crop. Bales. Price. Value. 



1871 4,352,317 20 cents. $391,708,630 



1887 6,513,623 10 cents. 293,093,035 



" So that the crop of 1871 was 2,161,306 bales less than the crop of 1887, 

 yet it brought the cotton farmers $98,613,595 more money. The two crops 

 of 1886 and 1887 aggregated 13,063,838 bales, three times as many bales 

 as the crop of 1871, and yet these two crops brought our farmers only 

 $196,164,080, or about 50 per cent more than the crop of 1871. 



" In 1870 the value of agricultural lands, in the ten cotton States, was 

 $1,478,000,000. In 1880 they were $1,019,000,000, a decrease of $459,000,- 

 ooo, or 3 1- per cent. 



Cents. 

 1860 to 1870, average price per pound ........ 48} 



1870 to 1880, average price per pound 



1880 to 1887, average price per pound II 



Price to-day n 



