AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES. 469 



country, have shared the general depreciation or shrinkage in values, and in 

 this, perhaps, is to be found the clearest and most undeniable proof of the 

 alarming depression which prevails among the agriculturists of the country. 

 Let us look briefly at the condition of the farmers, in some of the representa- 

 tive States of the different sections of the country. 



" In Massachusetts, the value of the farm lands, in 1875, was $ ! 16,629,849. 

 In 1885 it was $110,700,707; a loss, in ten years, of $5,929,142. In 1865 

 that State produced 70,000,000 pounds of beef; and in 1885, twenty years 

 later, it produced only 10,000,000 pounds. In 1845 it produced 1,015,000 

 pounds of wool ; in 1865, 609,000 pounds, and in 1885, 255,000 pounds. 

 " The farm lands of the New England States : 



Value. 



1850 #372,348,543 



1860 476,303,837 



1870 585,167,473 



1880 . 580,579,418 



"Showing a yearly increase, for twenty years 1850 to 1870 of 

 $10,690,946, and the yearly decrease, from 1870 to 1880, was $458,850. 



"Take Georgia, one of the most progressive and enterprising States of 

 the South. In 1860 the value of agricultural lands, returned for taxation, 

 $157,000,000. In 1886 it was $105,000,000, a loss of 33 per cent. In 1866 

 the farmers of Georgia owned 72 per cent of the wealth of the State ; in 1888 

 they owned only 24 per cent ; yet during that time the population increased 

 60 per cent. In a recent address, made by Hon. L. F. Livingston, of that 

 State, he said, that, during the past ten years, the property in the towns and 

 cities of that State had increased in value $60,000,000, while in the agri- 

 cultural districts it had decreased $50,000,000. 



" From this State, great in resources and enterprise, let us turn to its peer 

 in the Northwest : 



*' IN ILLINOIS. 



All mortgages and totals of indebtedness, principal, and interest. 



1880 Lands $112,367,054 



Lots 79,346,851 



Chattels 12,747,429 



Total $204,461,334 



1887 Lands $147,320,054 



Lots 246,704,827 



Chattels 22,354,187 



Total $416,379,068 



" An increase of this class of indebtedness, in seven years, of $21 1,917,734, 

 or 103 per cent. 



" On land alone, the increase of indebtedness, in seven years, was 

 $44,953,000, or 40 per cent. 



