REPORT OF THE STATISTICIAN. 



WISCONSIN— Continued. 



505 



Counties. 



Ontasramie 

 Ozaukee... 



Pepin 



Pi rce 



Polk 



Portnge 



Price'. 



Racine 



Kichland . . 



Tor 

 cent. 



Counties. 



Rock 



Sa'irt Croix . 



Sauk 



Shawano 



Sheboygan . . 



Taylor 



Trempealeau 



Vernon 



Walworth... 



Per 

 cent. 



Counties. 



Washington 

 Waukesha . 

 Waupaca. . . 

 Waushara.., 

 Winnebago 

 Wood 



Total.. 



WYOMING. 









1 

 1 



Uintah 











Total 





Crook 





















AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION FOR AMERICAN CONSUMP- 

 TION. 



It is a truth that escapes recognition by multitudes of the American 

 people that the products of the agriculture of this country are mostly 

 consumed at home, and it is a certainty that this will be the case in the 

 future. Our agriculture is primitive, even crude, on a large proportion 

 of its area. There is a want of harmony in the distribution of crops, 

 which a higher culture, with time and experience, will cure. There 

 is too much area devoted to some crops, too small a rate of yield upon 

 that area, and too little breadth to other crops. Were it the result of 

 climatic difficulties or other natural hindrances, it might not be wise to 

 seek to change these crop relations. But with a continent for indus- 

 trial exploitation — almost a world in itself — it is rank stupidity to as- 

 sume that the necessiti es of a great people in consumption of all products 

 grown in temperate climates cannot be supplied from the resources of 

 home soil and labor. 



Our production in certain directions has been excessive. While pop- 

 ulation doubled in twenty-seven years, the wheat area doubled in fif- 

 teen. There were four millions of farms in 1880, and but two millions in 

 1SG0. The maize crop of one year is equal to the product of four years 

 in Europe. The supply of wheat per capita was only 4.33 bushels in 

 1849, 5.5 in 1859, 7.46 in 1869, and 9.2 in 1879. We might produce 20 

 bushels per capita, but it would be folly to do it. The area in wheat 

 is now 39,475,000 acres, and 12,000,000 acres are cultivated in excess of 

 the wants of the country, the produce of which must be sold abroad, 

 mainly in Liverpool, in competition with the grain of Russia, of South 

 America, of Australia, and of India. It is sent 1,500 miles by land and 

 3,500 miles by sea, and from California more than half round the world, 

 to compete with the half-civilized fellahs of Egypt and the slavish ryots 

 of India. It is a competition unworthy of American freemen, and ut- 

 terly unnecessary, being caused by bad calculation in the distribution 

 of crop areas, for while we export one-third of the wheat production, 

 we import one-seventh of all the barley consumption, and $100,000,000 

 worth of sugar at foreign valuation, which brings -8150,000,000 in 

 our local markets in addition to the costs and profits of refining here. 



