The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1909-12-10
WHAT THE FARMERS DID
Tremendous Increase in Crop Value Last
Year-Were Worth Nearly
Nine Billions

Most prosperous Of all years is the
place to which 1909 is entitled in agri-
culture, declares the secretary of agri-
culture in his thirteenth annual report
just made public. The value of farm
products is so incomprehensibly large
that it has become merely row Of fig
ures. This year it is So, 100, 900, 900,
a gain of $500, 100000 over 1908.
The value of the products has nearly
doubled in ten years. The report says:
Eleven years Of agriculture, begin
ming with production Of $4,417, 000,-
900 and ending with SO, 700, 900, 900!
A sum of $4,000, 100000 for the pc
Rod! 1t has paid off mortgages, it has
established banks, it has made better
homes, it has helped to make the
farmer citizen of the world, and it has
provided him with means for improving
his soil and making it more produc-
tive"
The most striking feature in the
worlds agriculture is the value of the
corn crop for 1909, which is about
81, 100000, 900. 1t nearly equals the
value Of the clothing and personal
adornments of 76, 100000 people, ac-
cording to the census of 1900. The
gold and silver coin and bullion of the
United States are not of greater value.
1t has grown up from the soil and out
of the air in 100 days-$15, 100000 a
day for one crop, nearly enough for
two Dreadnaughts daily for peace or
war. This crop exceeds in value the
average of the crops of the five pre-
ceding years by SO per cent.
Cotton is now the second crop in
value, and this years cotton crop is
easily the most valuable one to the
farmer that has been produced. With
cotton lint selling at 1871 cents on the
farm Nov. 1st, and with cotton seed
selling for about SIS per ton, the lint
and seed of this crop are worth about
$3.50, 100000 to the farmer. No cot
ton crop since 1878 has been sold by
farmers for so high price per pound
as this one.
Third in value is wheat, worth about
SIPS, 100000 at the farm, and this
largely exceeds all previous years. The
November farm price was almost an
even dollar bushel, price which has
not been equalled since 1881. This
is the third wheat crop in point of size,
with 725, 100000 bushels.
The hay crop is valued at $685.
100000; oats at $500, 100000 pota-
toes at $212, 100000, and tobacco at
nearly $10O,000,000. Beet and cane
sugar and molasses and syrup, from
farm and factory, will reach the total OF
about sos, 100000. The barley crop
is worth $4,000, 900, haxseed $780,
100000, and 100000 pounds of
rice, $25, 100000.
The production of all cereals com
bined is 1,000,000 bushels, an
amount considerably greater than that
for any other year except 1906. 1t
exceeds the average of the preceding
five years by 6.5 per cent. The value
of all cereals in 1909 has never been
equalled in a previous year. 1t is
almost exactly 50, Ooo,000,o00, or "a
per cent above the fve-year average.
Compared with the average Of the
previous five years all principal crops
are greater in quality this year except
cotton, haxseed, hops and cane sugar;
but without exception every crop is
worth more to the farmer than the five
year average.
This is the year of highest produc-
ton for potatoes, tobacco, beet sugar,
all sugar and rice; next to the highest
production for corn, oats and all cereal
crops. Compared with 1908, gains in
value are found all along the line, the
exceptions being barley, buckwheat,
rye and milk. The increase for cotton
lint and seed is sos, 100000; wheat,
S107, 100000; corn, S105,000, 900;
hay, $2o, 100000; oats, $22, 900, 900;
tobacco, $1S, 100000; potatoes, s15,-
100000
The total increase in the value of
farm products this year over 1908
1860, 900, 000-is enough to buy a
new equipment Of farm machinery for
Il