Decembee 9, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



827 



The cotton crop, including seed, is worth 

 this year only three fifths of the value of the 

 com crop; the wheat crop only two fifths; the 

 hay crop, less than one half. All of the cere- 

 als, except com, are together worth only three 

 fourths as much. The great allied iron and 

 steel industries had in the latest census year 

 for which results have been published, 1904, 

 a production worth only 60 per cent, of the 

 value of this year's corn crop. 



For many years the cotton crop was fourth 

 in value among the crops, being exceeded 

 usually by corn, wheat and hay. But in those 

 days the price of cotton was very low. The 

 crop of this year may be worth in lint and 

 seed around $900,000,000 at the farm, or more 

 than the com crop was worth in any year 

 prior to 1901, or more than the wheat or hay 

 crop was ever worth. Apparently the cotton 

 crop of this year, including seed, is worth 

 $129,000,000 more thaji the crop of last year, 

 and that crop was far above any previous one 

 in value. During the last five years the cot- 

 ton crop had an average value of $685,000,000, 

 so that the value for this year is 13 per cent. 

 above the five-year average. The number of 

 bales in this year's cotton crop will be de- 

 termined by the Bureau of Statistics of this 

 department next month, and at the present 

 writing no forecast of that estimate can be 

 suggested. From commercial sources, how- 

 ever, it is evident that the cotton production 

 of this year will be considerably short of 

 being a record breaker, although possibly it 

 may be the fourth in order of magnitude that 

 this country has produced. The average cot- 

 ton crop of the preceding five years had a 

 weight which perhaps is not far from most of 

 the commercial estimates for the crop of this 

 year. 



Wheat has often contended with hay as to 

 precedence in value and the place in 1910 goes 

 to hay, notwithstanding its short crop. The 

 value of the hay crop is about $720,000,000, 

 an amount which has been exceeded but once, 

 and that in 1907, when the crop was worth 

 $744,000,000. Indeed, the value of the crop of 

 this year is much above that of the high crop 

 values of other preceding years, illustrating 



the principle that a somewhat deficient crop 

 is usually worth more in the aggregate than 

 an abundant one. The value of the crop of 

 this year is 13 per cent, above the average of 

 the preceding five years. The quantity of the 

 hay crop is 60,116,000 tons, and has been ex- 

 ceeded a dozen times. It is 5 per cent, below 

 the average crop of the preceding five years. 

 The feeding value of the hay crop, however, is 

 greater than its tonnage implies. Alfalfa 

 has entered into the production of this crop in 

 recent years and has now become in itself a 

 crop of large proportions. In relative geo- 

 graphic distribution, the hay crop has 

 changed perceptibly during the twenty-one 

 years since the census year of 1889. During 

 the interval the North Atlantic states have 

 increased their production of the national 

 crop from 24.3 to 27.8 per cent.; the western 

 division, 7.9 to 16.4 per cent.; the South At- 

 lantic, from 3.1 to 3.9 per cent.; the south 

 central, from 3.3 to 5.8 per cent.; the two 

 southern groups of states, from 6.4 to 9.7 per 

 cent. ; and consequently, the north central 

 states have lost relatively in a marked degree, 

 or from 61.4 to 46.1 per cent, of the national 

 crop. 



Fortunately the wheat crop is divided into 

 two sowings, autiunn and spring, and conse- 

 quently it is not improper to regard wheat as 

 having two crops. These to some extent cover 

 the same territory, but they belong largely to 

 different geographic areas, subject to diSerent 

 climatic accidents, with the frequent result 

 that one of the crops is a successful one and 

 the other is not. Such was the fact this year, 

 when the winter crop was a large one and the 

 spring-sown crop suffered from severe drought. 

 The production of both crops this year is 

 691,767,000 bushels, or substantially the av- 

 erage of the preceding five years, whereas the 

 value is about $625,000,000, or 7.6 per cent, 

 above the five-year average. The quantity of 

 this year's wheat crop has been exceeded four 

 times, but the value has been exceeded only 

 once, in 1909, although the crop of 1908 was 

 nearly as valuable. Wheat is another crop 

 that has undergone perceptible change in rela- 

 tive geographic distribution since the census 



