182 



FIELD CROPS 



and average farm value on December 1st, $337,840,000. The 

 ten leading states in production are shown in Table XI. 



Table XL Average annual acreage, production, and farm value 

 and mean acre yield of oats in the ten states of largest production 

 for the ten years from 1902 to 1911. 



As shown by the table and by the accompanying diagram, 

 the leading states in the production of oats are Iowa, Illinois, 

 Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Nebraska. These five states 

 produce more than half of the entire oat crop of the country, 

 while the first four, comprising the central portion of the 

 upper Mississippi Valley, produce more than 400,000,000 

 bushels, or about one-tenth of the entire production of the 

 world. The percentage of the total crop of the United States 

 which is produced by each of the important states is shown 

 graphically in Fig. 61. 



More than 10 per cent of the total land area of Iowa and 

 Illinois is annually devoted to the production of oats, while 

 from 4 to 7 per cent of the total areas of Wisconsin, Minne- 

 sota, Nebraska, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York are 

 utilized for this purpose. A more reliable basis for comparing 

 the relative importance of the oat crop in the various states 

 is that shown in Fig. 62, in which the percentages of the total 



