The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-01-16
SOUTHERN PROGRESS
rNCREAsE IN SECTIONS PBO-
 DUCTTON 0I GRAIN.
Big Gain Shown in Yield of Corn and Wheat-Value of Southern Farm Products for Year
 $I,016, ,0OO, ,OOO.

Baltimore, Jan. 15.-(Special.) )--Review- ing the increase in grain production in the South in 1903 the ,Manufacturers' Rec ord says:
 "The worlds attention has been SC largely centered upon cotton by reason, oi the high prices now prevailing. that the advance in grain production in the South has attracted less notice than 1t would otherwise have received. The yield of corn in the fourteen Southern States last year was 640.O00.0O0 bushels against 6O2,' OOo0OO bushels in 1902. 8 gain of .O0( bushels; in wheat there was an increase from 4s,0o0,000 bushels in 1902 to 6s. s.000. .00( bushels in 1903 and in oats @ gain from 56, 900 bushels to 64,0o0.0Oo bushels.
 ''The total increase in the grain crop of the South was 166. 900 bushels. the yield for 1903 having been 77S.0 100000 bush- els, against GOT 0O0, 900 bushels in 1902. The total value of the corn. wheat, oats, Irish potatoes, rye and hay crops (the only ones on which the Agricultural Depart ment has yet made it's full reports) for 1908 was $5Os. s.Ss7. 900 against s4O2. 10000 in 1902, an increase in these crops of $1O4,- O00,000 A minimum estimate of the value of the cotton and cotton seed crop of 1908 is $625, 000O0. It is quite possible that it will go considerably over that.
 'The census report of 1900 shows that the value of other products than those just mentioned, including rice, sugar, to- bacco, sweet potatoes, vegetables, fruits and livestock products, was $4S4,OOO,OOO. If we simply estimate the value of these latter items in 1903 as the same as in 1900, although there has been a considerable increase in most of them, the total value of the Southern farm products for 1908 was S1615. .OOO,0O0 against $1.271 100000 in 1900 and $66O. 100000 in 1880. Between 1880 and 1903 the increase in the population of the South has been almost exactly 50 per cent, while the increase in the value of farm products was IA per cent.
 During this period in which the value of farm products has so enormously in- creased, there has been an even greater increase in manufactured products, the value for 1903 including minerals having been about $1, 750, ,000.000 against S474,000, 900 in 1880. The combined value of agricul- tural and manufactured products In 1903 for the South was about $500. coo. 900 against about $1. 200, 100000 in 1880. the out- put having trebled. while population in- creased 50 per cent"
 Coincident with the remarkable increase in the value of Southern crops is the de- velopment of exports through Southern ports. Covering the shipments of bread stuffs from the United States in 1903. the Manufacturers Record shows that the to- tai value of breadstuffs shipped through Southern ports for that year was s7sO3s, . 900, against $63,751.OOO for the preceding year. a gain of nearly $14.SOO.OOO. or 9 per cent, while for all other United States ports the value of breadstuffs ex- ported was $l14,Ss1.O GOO. against SIP, ,629, 900 in 1902, showing a decrease of $S,747, 900 in 1903. Southern ports exported more than 10 per cent of the total breadstufgs which went out of the country. These striking figures showing a gain at Southern ports of S14.OOO,OOO fin grain and flour shipments and a decrease at other ports of $S,70O.- 900 are but another indication of the rap idity of the South's material advance ment, the foreign trade through these ports keeping pace with the remarkable increase in agricultural and manufactured products.