660 The Agricultural Statistics of the United States. 
nearly two-thirds of the whole maize product of the United States is 
raised. Maize is very little grown in Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, 
Nevada, and Arizona. The largest area of maize in any one State 
is 7,788,790 acres in Illinois ; the smallest area of any significance 
is 6,100 acres in Washington. 
The average yield in the United States for the ten years ending 
1888 was 24-2 bushels per acre. The seven States which recorded 
the highest annual average yield during this decade were — Vermont, 
34*3 bushels ; New Hampshire, 34-1 ; Maine, 33*9 ; Nebraska, 32 7 ; 
Massachusetts, 32-1 ; Ohio, 31-7 ; and Pennsylvania, 31 The lowest 
annual average yield is in South Carolina (9 bushels per acre). 
Though the South has a large area in maize, and a very rich soil, its 
climate is more favourable to growth of stalk than to heavy yields 
of grain. 
Wheat. — The total area, as given in the Returns of 1888, is 
37,336,138 acres, representing 20 per 1,000 acres of the entire land 
surface, and practically identical with the entire area of England and 
Wales. Wheat is most largely cultivated in Delaware, Maryland, 
and the five States of the "wheat-belt" — Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, 
Iowa, Minnesota ; all these grow more than 60 acres per 1,000. The 
premier position belongs to Indiana, with 121 acres per 1,000; whilst, 
of the States named, Minnesota is lowest, with 61 per 1,000. Wheat 
is scarcely grown in Wyoming, Louisiana, and Florida. Ohio, 
Indiana, and Illinois, in the Ohio Valley, and Delaware and Mary- 
land, produce almost exclusively winter wheat ; whilst Minnesota 
and Iowa yield spring wheat. The spring-wheat region includes the 
country west of Lake Michigan and north of Missouri and Kansas, 
the Hocky Mountain plateaux, and a strip in New York and New 
England bordering on Canada. 
The average yield over the whole country for the decade ending 
1888 was 1 2*3 bushels per acre. As many as 11 States have an 
average yield which is more than 30 per cent, above the general 
average. These are — Colorado, 1 9*6 bushels per acre ; Wyoming, 18; 
Montana, 17*8 ; Nevada, 17-8 ; Utah, 17-8 ; Idaho, 17*1 j Washing- 
ton, 16 - 7 ; Oregon, 16*6 (all in the Rocky Mountains region) ; and 
Massachusetts, 16*9; Connecticut, 16*7 ; and Vermont, 16*7 ( all in 
New England). In the Western States, the high rate of yield is 
due to a virgin soil ; in New England, to cultivation and condition 
of soil ; but all these States together yield a comparatively small 
portion of the total wheat product. The lowest average yield is in 
Florida (47 bushels per acre). 
Qats. — The total area recorded in the Returns of 1888 is 
26,998,282 acres, equivalent to 15 per 1,000 acres of total land 
surface, and representing 72 per cent, (nearly three-fourths) of the 
entire area of England and Wales. In only two States does the 
area occupied amount to more than 60 acres per 1,000, Illinois 
recording 107 per 1,000, and Iowa 72. In seven other States the 
area ranges between 31 and 60 per 1,000 acres — New York, 
