Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-07-31
CEREALS.
Offieia1 Facts and Figures Concerning
Their GrOwth-Special Census Report
on the Products of the United States.

Oficia1 Facts and Figures Concerning
Their Growth-SpeeisI Census Report
on the Products of the United States.
Washington Special to Missouri Republican.
The Superintendent of the Census has
lust received proof sheets OF the special
report of Professor w. II. Brewer on the
cereal products of the United states. 1t
is regarded by the Census Office as one OF
the most important and valuable docu-
ments ever issued by the government. 1t
will make a book of over 165 folio pages.
Besides the elaborate statistical informa-
ton contained in the report there are
chapters devoted to a history Of cereals,
the varieties, physical and chemical char
acteT of cereals, the relations OF gram 10
moisture, the cost and method OF produc-
ton. There are special chapters devoted
to wheat, corn, oats, barley, rye and buck
wheat, and containing discussions OF the
varieties of these cereals, the diseases and
insects injurious to them, the time of cut
ting. etc. The volume Will also contain
HISTORY OF AMERICAN AGRICULTURE,
and discussion of mixed farming land, i'm
plements and machinery, the relations OF
cereal productions to livestock growing
and the movement and handling OF grain.
The following facts and information nave
to-day been compiled from the report;
The total production of the six principal
census year amounts in round numbers TO /
,, 69S, 000,000 bushels, an average of o3.SS
bushels per head of the population, and
an increase of over "a per cent. since 1917.
This increase is in part due TO the cultl-
walton of new lands in the West and
Northwest, but more largely due to gam
in farming regions already occupied IN
1870. The popular belief that the chief
increase in production and the rapid /
of in
cropping on new and cheap lands is not !
sustained by the census enumeration.
THE TABLES
of production show that the most of the /
gain is in regions for some time i'll Guilt !
walton and on lands ranging from thirty
dollars per acre upward. The grain con- /
sumption per head of population IN the
United States is a fraction over forty
bushels, but in Europe it Is less than
eighteen bushels. 1t is thirteen bushels
in Austria, thirty in Denmark, twenty
tour in France, twenty-three in Germany,
and twenty in Great Britain, sixteen in
Holland. nine III Italy, seventeen in Rus
STA and seventeen in Spain. In 1880 Hill
nOis stood first in cereal production, Iowa
second and Missouri third. Illinois pro-
duced sixteen and fOrty-eight hundredths
of the total. Iowa thirteen and fOrty-fOur
and Missouri nine and twenty
two hundredths. The crop of five con-
tiguous States-Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,
Missouri and Iowa-amounts to over %
per cent. of all our grain Most of the !
grain of the United States is grown in re-
giOnS where
MINED FARMING
is practiced, and on farms of moderate
size. BY mixed farming is meant the
growing of both green and grain crops
and the production OF animals on the |
same farm. The tables of distribution-by |
features show that the |
''prairie region" produces over 81 per
cent, or about three-eighths of the whole, |
the Central region" following. These /
two produce nearly as much as all the !
other nineteen Typographical divisions into /
which the country is divided for this in /
yestigation. Considered by drainage /
basins, the great Mississippi basin, of /
course. leads all the rest. The tables of /
according to elevation show /
that each of the grains has the largest 1
production at an elevation of between |
five hundred and one thousand feet above /
the level Of the sea, where over 81 per !
cent. of the whole product is grown. Not I
only is the
TOTAL PRODUCT GREATEST,
but the proportion of each grain is also I
greatest. The next highest proportion of |
=
fifteen hundred feet elevation, where /
twenty-seven per cent. of the total is pro-
duced. Tho next rank reached also by /
each of the six grains is between one hun /
dred aad five hundred feet, where eleven /
per cent. is found. Thus over ninety per /
cent. of the grain of the country is grown |
between the elevation of one hundred and /
fifteen hundred feet. The production of /
bread grains belongs chiefly to the tenn I
perate climate, to the belt where, owing /
to the winters cold. comforts are secured /
only by labor. Although the grains I
grow only during the warm weather, /
their production is chiefly in a climate of (
cold winters, much of it where the
WINTERS ARE VERY COLD.
over 40 per cent. is produced where the /
annual temperature is between 40 and 80 /
degrees, "A per cent. where it is between /
- and % degrees, 81 per cent. where 1t is I
between 10 and 60 degrees, and over 81 /
per cent. where it is between 40 and 60 I
degrees. The distribution. according to |
annual rainfall, shows that 80 per cent. is /
produced where this is between 40 and IS /
inches, 60 per cent. where it is between 1
30 and 80 inches, and 90 per cent. where it /
is between % and 30 inches. The tables /
Of distribution according to
MEAN JULY TEMPERATURE
average midsummer temperature show |
that A. per cent. is produced where this is /
between 10 and so degrees and Sc per /
cent. where it is between 20 and 50 de- /
grees. Considered according to the rain /
fall of spring and summer, or the six |
growing months, the tables show that 81 /
per cent. is produced where this is be- /
tween 30 and % inches and 81 per cent. /
where it is between 10 and 80 inches. The /
profitable cultivation of cereals on a .
large scale is more dependent upon eli
mate than upon soil, and in the |
United States the relative fertility |
of the soil is but a secondary /
factor in the matter of production. /
In all the greater grain growing States,
except Pennsylvania, more than four
fifths of the grain farms are farmed by
their owners, 1t is very probable, in the
light OfallI Our present knowledge, that not
less than 50 and probably not more than
- per cent. of the total grain produced
i'm the United States, one year with /
another. is grown upon farms which are
occupied and managed by their owners.
The greater portion of the grain is grown
on farms of over one hundred acres; over
81 per cent. of the corn crop is produced |