The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1909-12-02
GREATEST OF ALL
YEARS FOR FARMER
Secretary Of Agriculture Says So
o. in His Report.
IMMENSE VALUE OF CROPS
Corn Alone Raised in 1909 Is Worth
$1,720, 100000 - Meat Price In
quiry Shows Producers Don't
~ Get Fair Share.

Washington, Dec. 1.-Most prosper
GUS of all years is the place to which
1909 is entitled in agriculture, declares
Secretary of Agriculture Wilson in his
thirteenth annual report, made pub
lie to-day. The value of farm prod
ucts is so incomprehensibly large that
it has become merely a row of figures.
For this year it is $3.50, 000, 900, a
gain of $S69, 200, 900 over 1908. The
value of the products has nearly
doubled in ten years.
The report says: Eleven years of
agriculture, beginning with produc-
ton of $4,417 10000 and ending with
IS, 100, 100000! A sum of $70,000,-
000, 600 for the period. 1t has paid
off mortgages, it has established
banks, It has made better homes, II
has helped to make the farmer a citi-
zen of the world, and it has provided
him with means for improving his soil
and making it more productive
Farm Production of 1909.
The most striking fact in the
worlds agriculture is the value of the
corn crop of 1909, which is about
$1,72O 100000. 1t nearly equals the
value of the clothing and personal
adornments of 76,000,000 people, &C
cordng to the census of 1900. This
crop exceeds in value the average of
the crops of the five preceding 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 1877 cents on the
farm November / and with cotton seed
selling for about SIS per ton, the lint
and seed of this crop are worth about
$3.50, 900, 900 to the farmer. No cotton
crop since 1873 has been sold by farm
ers for as high price per pound as
this one. w %.
Third in value is wheat, worth about
$725, 100000 at the farm, and this
largely exceeds all previous values.
The November farm price was al
most an even dollar bushel, price
which has not been equaled since 1881.
This is the third crop of wheat in
point of size, with 725, O08, 900 bushels.
70" The hay crop is valued, at $685., 000,-
600; oats at 100000, 900; potatoes at
S212 900, 900; and tobacco at nearly
500, 100000. Beet and cane sugar
and molasses and syrup, from farm and
factory, will reach the total of about
S95,000,000. The barley crop is worth
sSS, 100000. flaxseed $36,000,000, and
1000, 100000 pounds of rice $25, 900. 900.
Comparisons with Former Years.
The production of all cereals COM
bined is All 100000 bushels, an
amount considerably greater than that
for any other year except 1906. 1t ex-
ceeds the average of the preceding
five years by 6.5 per cent. The value
of all cereals in 1909 has never been
equaled in a previous year. 1t is al
most exactly s3,OO0,O 100000, or "a per
cent. above the five-year average.
Compared with the average of the
previous five years, all principal crops
are greater in quantity this year ex-
cept cotton, flaxseed, hops, and cane
sugar; but without exception every
crop is worth more to the farmer than
the fve-year average.
This is the year of the highest pro-
duction for potatoes, tobacco, beet
sugar all sugar, and rice; next to the
highest production for corn, oats and
all cereals. Compared with 1908, gains
in value are found all along the line,
the exceptions being barley, buck.
wheat, rye and milk. The increase for
cotton, lint and seed, is sos 200, 900;
wheat, $1O7 900 900; corn, sos ZOO, 900;
hay. s29, 100000; oats, $22, 900 900; to-
bacco, $1S,000,OOO; potatoes, $15,OOO,-
600.
Meat Prices.