AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATKS. 37 



which the average crop per acre is "much greater 

 than in the United States, if we except, perhaps, 

 some lew of the best cultivated districts. 



In order to determine what should be, it is SDme- 

 times useful to ascertam what actually is. Esti- 

 mates have been made at different times of the total 

 of agricultural products in this country. Such esti- 

 mates, however, have no pretensions to exactness ; 

 they are merely approximations to the precise quan- 

 tity : still, as similar estimates are made in other 

 countries, they may afford the means of compari- 

 son, as showing the proportion of production to the 

 population. Tne year 1H38 was, on the whole, a 

 favourable one for the farmer; and the crops un- 

 doubtedly, in the aggregate, exceeded those of any 

 previous year. If we estimate the wheat grown in 

 the country tViat year at sixty millions of bushels, 

 the corn at one hundred miUions, and the oats at 

 one hundred and fifty millions, we shall not proba- 

 bly be far from the truth. Barley does not rank 

 high in amount as a cultivated crop, though the 

 quantity produced is annually increasing. The 

 wheat is principally grown in the country north of 

 the Potomac and Ohio, and south of the great lakes. 

 The corn is produced chiefly in the South, and in the 

 valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi. Oats are culti- 

 vated in all sections, except in the extreme South ; 

 and are everywhere the principal food of horses, 

 while they are given to cattle, sheep, and swine to 

 a considerable extent. The average crop of wheat, 

 on the whole, cannot be estimated per acre at more 

 than eighteen bushels ; corn at thirty-five bushels ; 

 oats at the same ; and barley at about twenty bush- 

 els. This rate will, of course, vary greatly in differ- 

 ent sections. In the states north of the Ohio, the 

 average of corn would perhaps equal or exceed fiftj 

 bushels to the acre, while in the states south of the 

 Potomac it has been estimated as Iom' as fifteer, 

 bushels per acre. The difference in ine Ci,nf.r crops 



31()??8 



