No. 4.] EASTERN AND WESTERN FARMING. 165 



The country as a whole, including the south, averaged but 

 24.1 bushels of corn and 12.1 bushels of wheat per acre, 

 while the great wheat and corn producing States of the west 

 averaged but slightly more than this, or say 28 bushels of 

 corn per acre and 13 bushels of wheat, Illinois producing 

 but 26.3 bushels of corn per acre and Iowa but 10.3 bushels 

 of wheat, as the average from 1880 to 1890. 



As wheat in the hands of producers to-day brings not 

 over 40 cents per bushel, or at 13 bushels per acre $5.20, 

 and corn 25 cents per bushel, or $7 per acre, no extended 

 calculation of cost is required to show that the direct sale of 

 tillage crops can return but the scantiest wages to the pro- 

 ducer. Whatever of profit there is in western agriculture 

 comes from the secondary products of crops, — beef, butter, 

 pork and mutton. 



Whether there is a profit in the animal products of the 

 west is a debatable question, which requires a great deal of 

 calculation, into which variable elements enter. The public 

 are familiar with the fact that the sheep industry is on the 

 decline in the west ; that under the low prices that prevailed 

 two or three years ago the number of hogs so rapidly de- 

 clined as to produce a dearth of pork products ; and that in 

 the older western States the numlier of cattle fed is either 

 stationary or on the decrease ; thus, since the low price of 

 1890, oxen and other cattle have heavily declined in such 

 States as INIichigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. 

 They have slightly increased in four corn States, — Missouri, 

 Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas ; although, since hope that higher 

 prices for beef were soon to prevail began to fade in 1892, 

 the number of beef animals has actually decreased in corn 

 States like ISlissouri and Nebraska, while in Kansas the 

 numbers have been stationary, alone increasing in the single 

 corn State of Iowa from 2,707,049 to 2,731,385,— a prac- 

 tically stationary number. From this it appears that the 

 western States prefer to sell their corn, oats, barley and 

 wheat to making meat products at present rates. This seems 

 to put the profit of meat making on a parity with that of crop 

 production. Indeed, the papers of the west have stated 

 during the present year that ground is being ploughed up 

 from pasturage for grain production, as meat making is 

 thought to be less profitable. 



