9 8 



United States Agricultural Progress. 



potatoes, beets, beet-leaves, or other wet fodder in 24 hours, 

 it is a vaccum evaporator, which can be worked either with the 

 exhaust steam from a high-pressure engine or with steam direct 

 from a boiler, according to circumstances. 



Trogress of Agriculture in the United States. 



It is stated in the Report of the Secretary of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture for 1902 that, in the progress made 

 by the United States in recent years, there has been no more 

 conspicuous feature than the growth of agriculture. According 

 to the reports of the Twelfth Census, the fixed capital of agri- 

 culture, comprising the value of the land, buildings and improve- 

 ments, of implements and machinery, and of live stock, amounted 

 in 1900 to nearly £4,200,000,000, or four times the paid capital 

 invested in manufactures. During that year there were nearly 

 5,740,000 farms in the United States, with an area of 

 841,000,000 acres, of which 415,000,000 acres consisted of 

 improved land. These farms had a total value of nearly 

 £3,500,000,000, exclusive of farming implements and live stock, 

 the former of which, together with machinery, amounted to 

 over £150,000,000 in value, and the value of the latter exceeded 

 £625,000,000. In the returns of the last census about 40 

 million people, or more than half the total population, resided 

 on farms ; and of the 29 million comprising the proportion of 

 the population engaged in " gainful " occupations, about 10 

 million, or more than a third, were returned as employed in 

 agricultural pursuits. The people that work upon the farm 

 outnumber by more than three million persons those who are 

 occupied in the manufacturing and mechanical pursuits. 



In 1899, according to the census returns, the produce of 

 American agriculture, including farm animals and their products 

 had an aggregate value of nearly £1,050,000,000. 



The crop of maize, which formed the leading item, was valued 

 at £172,500,000. The hay and forage of the census year were 



