The Portland daily press., 1880-07-19
AGRICULTURAL.
The National Grain Crop.


From recent report of the Chief of the
Bureau of statistics, the Maine Farmer com
piles the following interesting data in re-
gard to the production and distribution OF
cereals in the United Stetes:
In the ten years from 1868 to 1873, our
total production of cereals increased from
l,45O,000,000 in the former year to 2,302.-
100000 bushels in the latter. OF the whole
national supply only three per cent. was ex-
ported in 1868 and ten per cent. in 1873:
while ia the twelve months ending June 30,
1879, nearly eleven per cent. of our entire
yield was sent abroad-A6, 100000 bushels
Of corn we keep for home consumption 934
per cent. of all we raise; of barley SO per
cent; OF rye, so per cent; of wheat, Is
per cent; of oats, SO per cent; while the
whole amount of our buckwheat is kept for
home use.
Although corn is grown in all parts of the
country and constitutes five-eighths of our
whole cereal crops, less than one-fourth of
the States grow more than they require.
Nearly all the surplus is produced bv the
single group of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa,
Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri. Michigan,
Wisconsin and Minnesota produce hardly
enough for home use, while the seven States
above named yield at the average rate of
slxty-two bushels to each inhabitant. As
late as 1859 the fifteen slave States produced
81 per cent of the whole corn crop: but at
present it is doubtful if any of them grow
enough for home consumption, for in 1877
all the Southern States produced only TO-
100000 bushels more than in 1859, while the
yield of the other States had swelled in the
same period from 4000,000,000 to 100000
900 bushels. The center of production has
moved west more rapidly than north, until
now forty per cent. of the entire yield is
raised beyond the Mississippi.
In the great corn belt the number of swine
and cattle raised is prOportionally much
larger than i'll other sections, especially in
Indiana and Illinois, and here most of the
Surplus corn is concentrated in these ami
mails for shipment to the States. and to Eu-
rope. Owing to the deficiency of capital to
buy animals in the more newly settled
States, much of their surplus corn is ex-
ported in the hulkiest form, and that, too,
over the greatest distances, owing to their
remoteness from market.
OF our wheat, the Atlantic States produce
only II per cent. against 30 per cent. in
1860. The central States in the same period
have fallen from 81 to 40 per cent, while
the trans-Mississippi States have risen from
IA to AZ per cent. The New England States
produce only three-tenths of a bushel of
wheat to each inhabitant; the Middle States
three and third bushels per head; that is,
only a trife over half what they need;
while Kentucky and Tennessee produce
about six bushels; the Southern, Atlantic
and Gulf States nearly as much, and are,
therefore, over self-supporting, for owing
to the large amount of corn consumed by
negroes and others in the South, an average
of about four bushels of wheat per head is
held to be enough from Maryland to Texas.
The area suitable for wheat in the far West
is much larger than that adapted to corn,
inasmuch as the former can be grown from
1900 to 5000 feet above the level OF corn
culture. so that vast regions in Washington
Territory, Dakota, Wyoming, Idaho and
Montana, from which corn growing is vir-
tually excluded, are admirably adapted to
wheat culture.