Iron County register., 1880-07-15
Where Are Cereals Grown.

producing States and what change has
taken place in this respect within the
past few yearso Some data in regard
to the production and distribution OF
CEREALS, aswell as the capacity of differ,
ent 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 wears from l, ,45O, 900, 900 bushels
in 1868 to ATS 100000 in 1877, and
2.3O2, 900, 900 in 1878. Of the whole
national supply, only three per cent.
was exported in 1868, ten per cent. in
1873. while in the twelvemonth ending
Juue so, 1879, the shipment reached
the unprecedented figure of 246, 900, 900
bushels, or nearly eleven per cent. of
the entire yield. The relative proper
ton of each crop retained for consump-
ton is, in the case of corn 934 per cent,
of barley 3S per cent, of rye 80 per
cent, of wheat Is per cent, of oats SO
per cent, while of buckwheat the whole
amount produced is used at home. As
to barley, we observe that, although
less than ten per cent. is sent out of the
country, nearly all of it is moved from
places of its growth, and about one
third from the States in which it is pro-
duced. Corn is necessarily consumed
mainly in the neighborhood of its FRO
duction, and a survey of these statistics
shows that, though maize is grown in
. every part of the country and consti-
tutes fve-eighths of the whole cereal
harvest, less than fourth of the
States have a corn supply exceeding
their requirements. Nearly all the
available surplus is found in single
group, the river States of the West
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Ne
fbraska, Kansas and Missouri.
The so-called lake States-Michi-
gan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota
have barely enough corn for
home consumption, which is less per
capita by fourth than the average of
the United States. Their comparative
deficiency in this cereal is best seen in
tghe number of swine returned, which
varies as 40 to 116 reported for the corn
belt. The proportion of cattle, too, in
the same sections was as 66 to 81. The
Immense preponderance of corn grow
ing in the seven central States of the
great valley is attested by the product
of sixty-two bushels per head-this, too,
in a 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 pro-
duced 50 per cent. of the whole crop.
In the year 1860, the corn-growing States
were ranked as follows: Illinois, Ohio,
Missouri, Indiana, Kentucky and Ten
nessee; but ten years later Iowa had
dislodged Ohio from the second place.
In 1873 Illinois and Iowa retained the
first and second rank; Missouri and
Kansas both passed Ohio, and then fol-
lowed the other States mentioned in
the same order as in 1860. The crop of
all the Southern States was only 10,-
600, 900 bushels larger in 1877 than it was
the year before the war, whereas that
of the other States has risen in the
same period from 40O,O0O,OO0 to 90O.-
100000 bushels. The center of pro-
-duction has moved, however, more
rapidly westward than northward.
Amid all these changes the rela-
tive yield of the central belt between
the Alleghanies and the Mississippi
River has declined by very SOW de-
grees, and will continue for time to
recede slowly, until the lands of the
Missouri Valley are more fully occupied.
Already, however, the proportion of the
corn crop grown in the trans-Mississippi
zone reaches nearly forty per cent. 1t
is also clear from the latest statistics
that the increase of cattle feeding n
Indiana and Illinois threatens to rela-
gate to the country west of the Missis-
sippi the business of shipping corn in
grain. Thus the most bulky form in
which this cereal can be exported is
that in which it is tending to be sent
the greatest distances to market an
apparent violation of the plainest prin-
eciple of economy. Of course the anom-
ally arises from the necessities of primi-
tive agriculture, which lacks capital to
buy the requisite animals for the con-
densation and conversion of grain.
Of our wheat crop the Atlantic coast
now produces only seventeen per cent,
against thirty per cent. in the year be-
fore the war. The central belt has
fallen in the same period from tifty-four
per cent. to forty per cent, while the
rans-Mississippi region has risen from
fourteen per cent. to forty-two per cent.
The surplus is now produced only in
five States lying between the Ohio River
Missouri Kansas, Nebraska, California
and Oregon. The portions of our own
country requiring part of this surplus
comprise New England, the Middle
States and the Cotton States. New
England produces only three-tenths of
a bushel for each iniiabitant; the Middle
States grow three and one third BUSH
els, or little more than half the guam
tity necessary for full supply; the
Southern, Atlantic and Gulf States al
most as much, while Kentucky and
Tennessee, with nearly six bushels are
self-supporting. Of course the require
ment of wheat is not the same, per
capita. in ali sections. In the South
there is large quantity of corn used,
by whites as we'll as negroes, and taking
the twelve States from Maryland to
Texas together, four bushels per head
is deemed the mean amount consumed.
While the westward progress of corn
Is lako yc1ox