THE FUTURE PROSPECT. 45 



per cent., the product, at the latter elate, being 100,485,944. 

 Ill that year, or rather iii 1849, on which the return is based, 

 Pennsylvania produced more than any other State in the 

 Union, or 15,367,691 bushels. Its product at the last census 

 was nearly 20,000,000, but the centre of production has 

 moved ftirther and farther to the west. 



Since the practicability and economy of the reaper and 

 other machinery became certain, the increase in the produc- 

 tion of wheat has been more rapid, as appears from the fact 

 that in 1860 the crop amounted to 173,104,924 bushels, and 

 in 1870 to 287,745,626 bushels. Our exports of this cereal 

 in 1860 amounted to about 12,000,000 bushels, in 1861 to 

 over 20,000,000, and in 1862 to very near 30,000,000, a 

 greater quantity than had ever been known before. In 

 addition to the vast increase of this crop in the Middle and 

 Western States, the production of wheat in California now 

 comes in to swell the aggregate capacity of exjjansion, to an 

 extent worthy of notice ; for while in 1850 her product of 

 wheat is returned as only 17,228 bushels, her yield of 1870 

 was nearly 17,000,000 bushels, with her resources but slightly 

 developed. And when it is considered that the great North- 

 west, — Iowa, Minnesota, and the region lying beyond them, 

 — still remains, to a large extent, unoccupied, there seems no 

 reason to apprehend that the growth of this important crop 

 will not continue to increase in the future as rapidly as it has 

 in the past. 



The other smaller grains have never occupied so prominent 

 a position in our agriculture, being grown more especially for 

 home consumption, but in the aggregate they constitute no 

 mean item of our national agricultural wealth. Thus our rye- 

 crop, as returned in 1870, amounted to nearly 17,000,000 

 bushels, our barley to nearly 30,000,000, our buckwheat to 

 nearly 10,000,000, and our oats to over 282,000,000. Rice, 

 which in 1860 was reported at 187,167,032 pounds, had 

 fallen off in 1870 to 73,635,021 pounds. 



THE POTATO. 



The potato is more universally cultivated than any other 

 plant except, perhaps, Indian corn. It is scarcely more than 

 a hundred years since it became universally recognized as an 



