4t COST OF GROWING WHEAT IN THE UNITED STATES. [Sept. 1894. 



The minimum cost per acre was returned from South Dakota, 

 for which State the estimate was 35s. Sd. per acre, while the 

 highest return was received from the State of Connecticut, in 

 which the cost of growing an acre of wheat was stated to be 

 51. 9s. 9d. 



The average yield per acre of wheat in the United States for 

 the four years 1890-93 was 12-9 bushels, and this at 48s. S^d. 

 per acre works out to 3s. 9d. per bushel. 



About two-thirds of the wheat crop is grown in the section 

 regarded by the Statistician in the present estimate as Western 

 States. This section consists of fourteen States, viz : West 

 Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, 

 Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and 

 North Dakota. Within this very varied group the estimated 

 cost per acre ranges from the low figure quoted above for South 

 Dakota to the sum of 57s. 7^d. in Michigan, while the average 

 cost of production for the section is about 3s. 4fd. per acre less 

 than the average for the entire country. For these fourteen 

 States the average yield per acre in 1 893 w^as only 11 bushels, 

 so that the cost of producing a bushel of wheat in this region 

 was about 4s. last year. 



The largest wheat-growing State outside the area of the 

 so-called Western States is California, where the average yield 

 per acre in 1893 was 13*3 bushels. The total expenditure in 

 cultivating an acre of wheat in this State is estimated at 

 56s. 3d'., or about 4s. 2d. a bushel on the average yield of last 

 year. 



In the Statistician's report for December 1893, the average 

 farm value per acre of wheat produced in the United States 

 was stated as 25s. Sd. This, it is observed, would show on the 

 face of it a virtual loss to the farmer of 23s. per acre of wheat 

 for the year 1893. It must be remembered, however, that 

 besides the production of the grain the farmer has the straw, 

 which has in some sections of the country a feeding value of 

 about 20s. per acre, and that while the cost of production was 

 about normal, the price per bushel of wheat was unprecedentedly 

 low. 



