1872.—My crop on fifteen acres was as follows thia year: Two hundred and eighty bushels of corn on four acres, against forty acres required for the same amount by the State average; four balea of •ton on four acres, against fourteen acres; three hundred and fifty-n ne bushels of oats on seven acres, against eighty acres ; making, in all, one hundred and thirty-four scree, against fifteen—a saving of one hundred and nineteen acres with its extra expense of cultivatiOn.
1873.—On three acrea I made three hundred and four bushels of corn, against fifty-eight acres required by the State average; on five acres, three hundred and thirty bushels of oats, against seventy-three scree; making, in all, one hundred and thirty-one acres against eight. In the eight years I have saved in cultivation an average of aixty-seven acres annually, with its additional expense of $392.45 for cultivation, aggregating a total of $2,839.60.
It must not be inferred from this that it would be advisable to reduce all farms to small areas. Until a country becomes densely settled, it is not practicable to work a few acres. On cheap lands the profit is in working large areas. by means of machinery and- horse power; nevertheless it is the fact, as a country is settled up, large bodies of land continue to be cultivated to special crops, without division, until they become exhausted. No better exemplification of this fact can be given than in the large areas of waste land in the South, that years ago were utterly run down under the exhaustive system then practiced. We see the same thing to-day in some sections of the West, in a limited sense. Yet in the West there is a constant tide of emigration pouring in, and the lands are subdivided and eagerly bought up by the new corners, in small areas of forty acres and upward, and, before they have seriously de teriorated. Hon. J. R. Dodge, in an address before the National Agricultural Congress in 1874, stated some curious facts in relation to areas of particular crops, from which we extract as follows : When we consider that less than a third of the area of the States, and less than a fifth of the entire domain of the United States, is mapped into farms, and remember that of this farm-area only one-fourth is tilled or mowed; and when we further reflect that the average yield per acre could be doubled if the many could be brought•up to the plane of the few in the prac tice of intensive culture, then we begin to realize what numbers our country is capable of feeding, and what waste of toil and effort comes from neglect of the economical lessons taught by the statistics of scientific agriculture. We now know that our wheat occupies an area less than the surface of South Carolina and, if the yield should equal that of England, half of that acre age would suffice. We know of our natural crop, maize, that it covers a territory not larger than the Old Dominion, and might pro duce its amplest stores within narrower limits than the present boundaries of Virginia. The potato crop could grow in the area of Delaware, though yielding less than a hundred bushels per acre; the barley for our brewing requires less. .than the area of a half-dozen counties; and to bacco enough to glut our own and European mar kets, is grown on an area twenty miles square.
The following tables are important, not only as being brought down to the latest corrected statis tics, but also as serving as a continued basis upon which to found values of farm products. The synopsis of total numbers of live stock, and total values which follow are also important. The first table shows the average cash value per acre of the principal crops of the farm, taken, together, for the year 1879.
Table showing the average yield and cash value per acre, and price per bushel, pound, or ton, of farm products for the year 1879.
A .general summary showing the estimated quan tities, for the United States, number of acres, and aggregate value of the principal crops of the farm in 1879.
me live stock of the United States for 1880, as to number and total value, and average, prices, foots up as follows: Of horses, there were in the United States and territories in 1,880, 11,201,800 head, valued at $613,296,611, the average, price being $54.75; mules, number, 1,729,500, value, $105,948,319, average price, $61.26; milch cows, number, 12,027,000, value, $279,899,420, average price, $23 27; oxen and other cattle, number, 21,231,000, value, $341,761,154, aver age price, $16.10; sheep, number, 40,765,900, average price, $2.21; swine, number, 34,034,100, value, $145,781,515, average price $4.28. In Europe the governments are fully alive to the importance of statistical information.' In the United States, until within a few years, the sta tistics, especially.agricultural statistics, have been meagre and unreliable; later they have become more full. Many state Boards of Agri culture have moved in the matter, and our statistics are now respectable at least. The average yield per acre in Great Britain for 1878, was wheat, 30 bushels; oats, 50 bush els; barley, 36 bushels; potatoes, 166 bushels; hay, 2 tons. The agricultural statistics of France, as published in 1876, are as follows: Total area, 130,910,000 acres; cultivated area, 101,200,000 acres; area in cereals, 37,050,000 acres. The table below shows the principal crops, acres, bushels, and bushels per acre, in France: In Great Britain the agricultural statistics are very thorough. The following summary and parisons for 1878—the latest received—Val be interesting, especially as snowing (their popula tion being to the United States as thirty-six to fifty) the true basis upon which the United States rests, in, the elements of real national wealth, as the following tables will show, this foundation being universally accorded to be the diversified wealth which a country may have for use and export : It will be seen from the foregoing that the United States rests for her prosperity essentially upon an agricultural basis, and that our averages compare favorably with that of two of the greatest agricul tural countries of Europe. This is undoubtedly due to our improved processes of cultivation and improved implements. Within the last few years a system of tile draining has been adopted in many sections, especially in the West, which has added materially in lengthening the growing season, and in materially increasing the average of crops per acre.