The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1874-08-28
Progress of AgrlcuIture and PonuIation.

It is we'll for a nation of farmers to
review often their growth in population
and in the products of the soil. The
census of 1910 gave the inhabitants of
the United States at II, ,069, ,553. In
1870 they had more than doubled in
number, being 38, 55S, 81. At the last
census the otal lea of states and terri
tories is set down st ], 1891, ,S55, $50 acres.
Of which only 18S, 912, ,S33 are improved.
In the thirty years from 1910 to 1870 the
increase in the anual crops of wheat
was from "a, 81, 175 bushels to 2S7. 745.-
626 bushels. These figures show a gain
IN wheat in three decades Of over 300
per cent. and considerably larger than
IN population.
Butter and cheese increased from 1910
to 1870 as follows 202, 40, 40 pounds
at the first census, and 677, OF, ,O95 at
the last. The yield of hay was nearly
trebled. The returns thirty-four years
ago were not so full as at the two last
but they aye still very defective and in
some matters unreliable. The real diff
hculty has been to interest farmers in
the study of agricultural statistics but
we are happy TO believe that new life
has been called into existence through
the Patrons of HusbandrY whichmay do
much to develop and diffuse a love of
rural knowledge. Farmers should pom
der these pregnant facts
In 1850, the cash value of their farms
including farm implements, machinery,
and live stock, was s., ,967, ,343, $50.
These are large, yet the gain was nearly
800 per cent. in 20 years only, but our
currency IN 1870 was not the same as
1850. We Will give the official returns
~ IL, L
readers-eleven bill, ,ioL, one hundred
and twenty-four million, nine hundred
and fifty-eight thousand, seven hundred
and forty-seVen dollars,
Who viii say that our agriculture is
not an immense business ? The COM
mon sense which directs so much labor,
and controls so large a capital from
year TO year and generation to genera
tlon, should be cultivated deeply, and
wisely, as well as earth or the dead
sand, clay and vegetable mold. In 1850
the writer had charge Of all the agricul-
turaI department there was in Wash
Ington, and got the acres of improved
and unimprUved land returned for the
first time IN the history of the nation.
Then the value of the animals slauRht-
cred and sold was S1I1, 700, : ,142 : in 1870.
it was 1898, $50, ,379, an enormous in
crease for twenty years. Meat has never
been so high in England as at present,
and Tennessee should be one of the
largest meat producing states in the
union.
1t 1850 the crop Of cotton returned
was 2, 469, 093 bales of 400 pounds each
in 1870 it was 8, oil, 996. The rice crop
fell from 215, 313, 487 pounds to 73, ,635,-
021. Sugar from 267, 577 hogsheads to
| 81, ,943. Tobacco increased in twenty
years from 199, 752, 655 to 262. .735, ,34I
pounds. A good deal of tobacco Is now
raised ia Connecticut, New York and
Ohio. But perhaps the most noteworthy
figures are those showing the increase
of manufactures from 81, ,0I9, ,1O6. SIG in
1850 to $4,232, 325, ,493. This gain of
over three billion dollars came largely
out of the pockets of farmers. The
total yield of cereals in 1870 was /, ,387,-
274, PIT bushels Exchange.