Agricultural Depression at Home and Abroad. 
689 
The United States. 
On previous occasions I have given a great quantity of evi- 
dence from American sources, official and otherwise, to show the 
severity of agricultural depression which has existed for many 
years in the United States. Some of it was summarised in the 
article which appeared in the Journal three years ago, mentioned 
already. In that article I pointed out that, even if no other evi- 
dence of the unremunerativeness of wheat-growing were available, 
the fact that in the ten years ending with 1890 the wheat area of 
the country had diminished, while the population had increased 
by 12^ millions, was sufficient proof. In the first part of the 
present article I have shown that there has been a further 
decrease in the wheat area since 1890 of more than 2,750,000 
acres, in spite of a further increase of between five and six 
millions in the population. We think a great deal of the increase 
of grass land in this country as a proof of agricultural depres- 
sion, and it certainly is so. But if the pasture of the United 
Kingdom has increased by about 2,500,000 acres since 1880, 
the hay crop alone in the United States has expanded to the 
extent of about 24,000,000 acres during the same period. In 
1880 there were 25,863,955 acres devoted to the hay crop, and 
in 1893 the area had grown to 49,613,469 acres, while it is 
doubtless greater in 1894. 
Although the last four wheat crops have been good ones, the 
crop of 1891 alone realised a price high enough to give a remu- 
nerative return per acre. Taking the commercial estimates of 
produce as bigger than the official reckonings, the yield per 
acre comes out at barely 17 bushels an acre for 1891, and 143, 
13, and 14 bushels per acre for the three succeeding crops in 
the order given. At the official December farm price, returned 
annually by the Department of Agriculture, these yields come 
out at about fourteen, nine, seven, and probably a little over six 
dollars per acre. The price was comparatively high in 1891, and 
the yield quite extraordinary, so that it afforded a profit ; but 
$ 9 , or 37s. 6d., for 1892 is not enough to pay the average 
American farmer, and of course 29s. 2d. for 1893 and about 
25s. for 1894 are ruinous returns, or would be if long continued. 
It is not enough to show, even if it can be proved, that wheat 
can be grown at very low prices in certain limited tracts of 
country, or even in one whole State. Supposing that to be a 
fact, it would not disprove the existence of severe depression in 
the rest of the country, nor would it show that the American 
wheat supply could be kept up at the price. Early in the 
present year the U.S. Department of Agriculture obtained esti- 
