March 1897.] 



GENERAL AGRICULTURAL NOTES. 



405 



With regard to the effect of the Homestead Law it is 

 maintained that no legislation relative to the public domain 

 has been so directly inimical to the farmers who had bought 

 and paid for the lands upon which they lived and laboured. 

 Until this law came into operation in 1866 occupiers of land in 

 the United States competed with each other upon land repre- 

 senting accumulated capital and fixed investments, but when the 

 vast areas of fertility allotted under the legislation of 1866 

 began to produce crops the value of land in the Eastern and 

 Middle States of the Union declined. Farmers in the older 

 States found it impossible to profitably dispose of their products 

 in the face of the competition of the produce from farms, which 

 cost their owners nothing, in the newly settled States. 



Farm Animals in the United States. 



According to the telegraphic summary of a report by the 

 United States Department of Agriculture the number of domestic 

 animals on farms and ranches in the United States in January 

 1897, contrasted as follows with those of the previous year : — 



Animals. 



Number. 



Decrease. 

 Per Cent. 



January 

 1897. 



January 

 1896. 



Horses 

 Mules 



Milch-cows - 



Oxen and ether cattle 



Sheep 



Swine 



14,435,000 

 2,216,000 

 15,942,000 

 SO.508,000 

 36,819,000 

 40,600,000 



15,124,000 

 2,279,000 

 16,138,000 

 32,085,000 

 38,299,000 

 42,843,000 



5-0 

 2-3 

 1-0 



4- 9 

 8-9 



5- 2 



It will be observed that, comparing the figures for 1897 with 

 those for 1896, there is a decrease of about 1,500,000 both 

 in the case of oxen and other cattle, and of sheep, and of over 

 2,000,000 in swine. The oxen in the United States have now 

 declined continuously from 36,600,000 in 1894, and sheep from 

 47,300,000 in 1893; while in swine the fall set in after a 

 maximum of 52,400,000 in 1892. 



The total value of all animals is estimated at 344,354,000Z., 

 against 359,985,000L, a decrease in round numbers of 15,600,000^., 

 or 4 per cent., although the value per head of cattle and sheep 

 is computed to be greater than in 1896. This decrease in the 

 total value has now been steadily progressing since 1893, when 

 the total was 517,397,000^., or over 173,000,000^. more than now. 



D 2 



