The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1880-06-26

What are at present our chef grain produc.
ing States, and what change has taken place
IN this respect within the past few years 7
Some data in regard TO the production and dis
trbulion Of cereals, as well rs the capacity of
different sections for advance in this direction,
have lately been published by the Bureau of
Statistics
1t appears that the total product of cereals in
the United States increased In ten years from
1900 600 bushels in 1858 to =, l7S 000, 900 IN
1877, and 1902 100000 in 1870. OF the whole
national supply, only per cent was exported
in 1868, 10 per cent. IN 1873 while in the
twclvemonth ending June 30, 1870, the ship
ments reached the unprecedented figure Of
246, 600 900 bushels or nearly 1 per cent. of
the entire yield. The relative proportion of
each crop retained for consumption is, IN the
case Of corn 93ls per cent, of barley 80 per
cent, of rye 80 per cent, of wheat Is per cent,
Of oats 90 per cent, while of buckwhcat the
whole amount produced Is used at home. AS to
barley, we observe that, although less than 10
per cent. Is sent ont of the country, nearly all
of 1t is moved from the places of its growth,
and about onc-third from the States in which
1t is produced. Corn is necessarily consumed
manly in the neighborhood of ITS production,
ana survey of these statistics shows that,
though maize is grown In every part of the
country, and constitutes five eighths of the
whole cereal harvest, less than fourth of the
States have a corn supply exceeding their re
quirements. Nearly all of the available sur
plus is found i'll single group, the river States
of the Wcst-Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa,
Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri. The so called
lake States-Michigan, Wisconsin and Mime.
sota-havc barely enough corn for home con.
sumption, which is less per capita 10y fourth
than the average Of the United States. Their
comparative deficiency IN this cereal Is best
seen in the number OF swine returned, which
varies rs 40 to ll6 reported for the corn belt
The proportion of cattle, too, IN the same sec.
TONS was as 66 to 81. The immense prepon-
dcrancc Of corn growing IN the seven central
States of the great valley is attested by the pro.
duct of siXtytwo bushels per head--this, too
IN region less exclusively agricultural and
more conspicuous for manufactures than any
other section of the West or South
The seat of corn production was we need not
say, formerly in the South. As late as 1859,
fifteen slave States produced 80 per cent of
growing states were ranked as follows; Hi.
nois, Ohio, Missouri, Indiana, Kentucky, and
Tennessee; but ten years later Iowa had dis
lodged Ohio from the second place. In 1873
Illinois aud Iowa retained the first and second
rank Missouri and Kansas both passed Ohio,
and then followed the other States mentioned
IN the same order as in 1850. The crop of all
the Southern States was only 10000, 900 bush.
els larger in 1877 than it was the year before
the war, whereas that OF the other States has
risen IN the same period from 400,0O0,O00 to
900 900 900 bushels. The centre of production
has moved, however, more rapidly westward
than northward. Amid all these changes the
relative yield of the central belt between the
Alleghanies and the Mississippi river has de
clined by very slow degrees, and will continue
for time TO recede slowly, until the lands Of
the Missouri Valley are more fully occupied.
Already, however, the production of the corn
crop grown in the trans N ississippi zone reach
es nearly forty per cent II is also clear from
the latest statistics that the increase Of cattle
feeding in Indiana and Illinois threatens to