72 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



being at the rate of about $61 for each inhabitant, which is 

 slightly less than that in 1880, which was about $67. The 

 decline is chiefly in the pastoral products, particularly in live 

 stock. Thus in 1880 we raised nearly as many horses, 

 cattle, sheep and pigs as in 1900. The total number of 

 persons engaged in agricultural pursuits is 10| millions, and 

 their production, therefore, amounts to about $430 per person, 

 as against $2,000 per person engaged in manufactures. 



Let us look at it in another light. During the last twenty 

 years population has increased 52 per cent ; school popula- 

 tion has increased 58 per cent ; wealth has increased 109 per 

 cent ; manufactures have increased 1 50 per cent ; mining has 

 increased 83 per cent ; agriculture has increased only 36 per 

 cent, as measured in the same way, by the value of its prod- 

 ucts. There is food for serious reflection in these figures. 

 The fact that agriculture has not kept pace, either with 

 population or with other branches of industry, is one that 

 concerns not only those who live on farms, but it concerns 

 as well the whole country. I commend to your considera- 

 tion the data of the census, which bring out these results, 

 and an intelligent study of the problem as to how the farmer 

 may avail himself, as other men engaged in industry have 

 availed themselves, of the work of modern science. 



It goes without saying that this discrepancy between the 

 gain in agriculture and in these industries, for instance, 

 manufactures, is due to a variety of reasons, of which the 

 one to which I have alluded is only one. The enormous 

 growth of manufacturing is also due to a number of causes. 

 But, notwithstanding all this, it is still a fact that agriculture 

 does not seem to have availed itself, as have other industrial 

 branches, of the fruitage which science has brought to the 

 last quarter of the century. 



The data which the census will furnish concerning manu- 

 factures will be most complete and most interesting. The 

 value of the output in 1900 will show an increase from about 

 9,300 millions to 13,300 millions of dollars; and the manu- 

 facturing hands, in 1900, compose about 9 per cent of the 

 population, as against 7^ per cent in 1890. The separate 

 items which go to make up manufactures will themselves form 

 interesting problems in the growth and in the development of 



