REPORT OF THE STATISTICIAN. 



469 



INCREASE OF FARM ACREAGE IN THIRTY YEARS. 



Tlie farm area of the United States has nearly doubled in thirty 

 years, increasing from 293,560,014 to 530,081,835 acres. During the 

 first ten years the taking up of Government lands in the West and 

 South and the State lands of Texas was active. The most fertile areas, 

 little encroached upon in the newer settlements, were taken possession 

 of with a certainty of appreciation in value that added intensity to the 

 pursuit of homes obtainable at insignificant prices. The absolutely free 

 homestead had not at that time been guaranteed by law. In tlie next 

 decade the disturbing element of civil war prevented aggregate in- 

 crease, the States within the theater of actual warfare declining in area, 

 some farms being abandoned and hence not counted as farms. At the 

 same time many of the Western States showed a considerable increase. 

 Kansas, for instance, with 1,778,400 acres in 1800, had 5,G5G,87i) in 1870. 



Between 1870 and 1880 the new lands taken into the farm area ex- 

 ceeded 128,000,000 acres. Of this no less than 49,000,000 were in six 

 divisions between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains. The in- 

 crease was large in the South, especially in Texas, where it was nearly 

 18,000,000. 



The proportion of unimproved land, notwithstanding the new land 

 taken up, has been constantly decreasing. It was 61.5 per cent, in 

 1S50; 59.9 in 1860; 53.7 in 1870 j and 4G.2 in 1880. The aggregates 

 are : 



Tears. • 



Farm land. 



Improved land. 





293, 560, 614 

 407,21-2, 538 

 407, 735, 041 

 536, OS 1,835 



113,032,614 

 163. 110, 720 

 188, 921,099 

 284,771,042 



1860 





1880 





Diagram II shows these areas in squares drawn to a scale of 1,000,000 

 acres per square inch, the improved and unimproved distinguished by 

 different colors. 



FARM VALUES OF PRODUCTS OF AGRICULTURE. 



The increase of twenty years in the values of products of American 

 agriculture has been far greater than the increase hi population. Quan- 

 tities have enormously increased, and values have changed, some being 

 lower and others higher than in 1860. The principal products are 

 shown in Diagram III in the order of their prominence. Meat, which 

 represents ranch grass or pasturage, is first, followed by corn, wheat, 

 hay, dairy products, cotton, poultry products, &c. Corn stood first in 

 1860, because the grains of the western half of the continent were un- 

 utilized, and meat production east of the Mississippi has assumed 

 greatly enlarged proportions. A part of the corn, about half, and a 

 small part of the hay are duplicated in the values of meats. The dairy 

 products are principally from pasturage, and therefore do not duplicate 

 extensively values of other items. The products represented in the 



