Dec. 1894.] KEPORTS ON FOREIGN CROPS. 193 



XIL— REPORTS ON FOREIGN CROPS. 



Crops in the United States. 



The October report of the Statistician of the Department of 

 Agriculture of the United States contains the preliminary 

 estimates of the results of the past harvest in that country. The 

 returns are stated to have indicated an average yield per acre of 

 wheat of about 13-1 bushels. The estimated area under the 

 crop, as reported by the Statistician in June last, appears to 

 have been 33,000,000 acres, so that a yield of 13-1 bushels per 

 acre would represent a total production of 432,300,000 bushels, 

 as compared with a yield of 396,131,725 bushels last year. 



The yield per acre is reported to have ranged from 3-4 bushels 

 in South Dakota to 19-4 bushels in Indiana. The very poor 

 out-turn in South Dakota, as well as in Nebraska, where the 

 average production per acre was returned as 6 '5 bushels, is 

 attributed to the effects of drought. On the other hand, in 

 some of the States the yield is said to have been greater than 

 that of the phenomenal crop of 1891. 



The condition of maize was returned in October as 64*2 against 

 63*4 in the previous month. The indicated yield per acre is 

 stated in the November report of the Statistician to have been 19 '7 

 bushels harvested from an estimated area of 60,500,000 acres 

 only, as 15,500,000 acres are reported to have been abandoned 

 except for fodder, &c. From these estimates, the crop would 

 appear to have amounted to a total production of 1,191,850,000 

 bushels, against 1,619,496,131 bushels in 1893. This is the 

 lowest yield recorded since 1881. 



The average yield per acre of oats, as reported in October 

 was 24"5 busheis on an estimated acreage of 27,027,500 acres. 

 These figures would indicate a total yield of 662,173,750 bushels, 

 compared with a production of 638,854,850 bushels last year. 

 The returns as to the quality of this grain are stated to represent 

 a general average of 90 '5. 



Rye has been harvested from an estimated acreage of 1,942,676 

 acres; the average yield is reported to have been 13*7 bushels 

 per acre, so that the total production of this cereal in the harvest 

 of 1894 would appear to have been 26,614,661 bushels. 



According to the June report of the Statistician, the area sown 

 with barley was about 3,172,000 acres. The yield per acre is 

 stated to have been 19 '3 bushels, so that the total production 

 works out to 61,219,600 bushels. In the previous year a crop 

 of 69,869,500 bushels was obtained from an area of 3,220,371 

 acres. The general average as to quality this season is returned 

 as 90'2. While drought was the chief cause of the light yield ; 



O 84193. D 



