690 Agricultural Depression at Home and Abroad. 
mates of the cost of wheat-growing from 25,000 farmers, and the 
general average for the whole country was $11 .69 an acre, or 
48s. 8 d. According to this reckoning there was a mean gain of 
nearly 10s. an acre in 1891, and mean losses of 11s. 2d., 19s. 6d., 
and about 2 -3s. 8 d. per acre occurred in the three following 
years. Where straw was sold there may have been little if any 
loss ; but throughout all but a very small proportion of the 
acreage the straw is not sold, and on probably more than half 
the land it is not even made into manure, but is burnt, 
except the very long stubble left in some parts of the country, 
which is ploughed in. Unless sold, used as chaff, or made 
into manure charged to the next crop, the straw cannot be 
counted as bringing any return. The smallest estimate per 
acre for any State is $7.48 for North Dakota, or 31s. 2d., 
the opposite extreme being $28.81 for Massachusetts. 
Apart from the question of the mere cost of wheat-growing, 
moreover, it is to be borne in mind that the American farmer, 
who is usually a small holder, must be considered depressed 
unless he gets a profit of 11. an acre on his wheat crop, and as 
severely depressed if he gets less than 10s. profit. According to 
the Census, the average size of a farm in the United States, not 
including holdings under three acres, is only 136^- acres, and 
that of the improved portion (ploughed at least once) is no more 
than 7S^- acres. Seeing that it is only the improved land which 
yields any appreciable return, it is obvious that a profit of 10s. 
an acre would be less than a labourer’s earnings. Such returns 
as have been obtained since 1891 are ruinous, and must bring 
the American farmer to ruin if they are long repeated, supposing 
that he persists in growing wheat. But, with such returns, his 
wheat area will become “ small by degrees and beautifully less.” 
It will not need to become much less, however, before its con- 
traction will inevitably raise the price. 
Depression in the American cattle industry has long been 
notorious, and needs no demonstration. As for sheep, they 
never have been generally profitable, partly because they have 
been badly managed as a rule. Of late, too, there has been 
much complaint as to the prices obtained for horses. Pigs, on 
the other hand, have paid well during the last two or three 
years, on account of their scarcity and the extreme cheapness of 
grain. 
Whenever the price of meat has been lower than usual in 
this country, accounts of heavy losses incurred by shippers of 
cattle and beef from the United States have appeared in American 
papers, in spite of the fact that cattle have sold in the country 
so badly in recent years that breeders and feeders have com- 
