New York AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 37 
does not signify that it has the proper combination of conditions 
to make a good farm. 
We must consider that the agriculture of the eastern states is 
now changing rapidly. It has passed through several epochs. The 
possibilities of agriculture in New York and the East lie largely 
in a new adaptation to conditions, and in its diversification. This 
diversification is already a feature of the East. It is significant 
to note that while New York ranks fourth in value of farm prop- 
erty, it ranks as low as seventeenth in farm acreage, showing that 
the yield per acre is far greater than in many of the competing 
states. In the total value of farm products New York is exceeded 
by Iowa, Illinois and Ohio. In the value of farm crops in 1899 
it held fifth place, being exceeded by Illinois, Iowa, Texas and Ohio. 
Considered with reference to the value of farm products per acre 
it leads the states in this list, the figures being New York $15.73 
per acre, Ohio $13.36, Illinois $12.48, Texas $12.25, Iowa $12.22; 
acc New York is exceeded by New Jersey and some of the New 
England states. Considering the fact that New York State is one 
of the largest states east of the Mississippi, this condition also 1n- 
dicates that New York is internally less developed than some of 
its competing states. Illinois ranks first in value of farm property 
and first in available farm acreage; Iowa ranks second in the value 
of farm property and second in available acreage; Ohio ranks 
third in value of farm property and third in available acreage; New 
York ranks fourth in value of farm-property and seventeenth in 
available acreage. The above statements indicate the reverse of de- 
cadence in our agriculture whatever may be the statistics that 
express changing values or whatever may be the popular fancy to 
the contrary. 
A further evidence of the great diversification of agricultural 
enterprises in New York, as a representative of Eastern conditions, 
is shown by the fact that in a list now before me of twenty-two 
leading products of this latitude, New York stands first in the 
production of eleven of them, whereas no other State ranks first in 
mere than two or three of them. While the agriculture of the 
State in general shows a decline as measured by the census figures, 
the main lines of special development are in a condition of increased 
vigor and effectiveness; and this remark may be extended to other 
Eastern States. The wonder is, not that certain lands are returning 
to forest, but that, in all this shift, we have been able to hold the 
position that we still occupy. 
