Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1910-02-27

not really king. In spite of the agricultural statisticians, the corn crop is not Uncle Sams greatest. Figured on a cash basis of dollars and cents even, it must give place to the country's one greatest and most essential product, that is the Baby Crop. Based on the latest figures compiled by Boston economist, the baby crop for 1910 will be worth the enormous sum of $4,SS7 100000. Even figured on the basis of former valu- ations, now acknowledged to be too low, the figure would amount to nearly 30O,00O00O
 Nor are these figures fanciful or based on sentimental values. They represent as nearly as possible the economic value to the United States, based on potential productive capac- ity of the 2,25o0o0 babies which it is estimated will constitute this years crop. Acording to the latest figures the value of each new conner is 1862 a pound, or $2,172 for the average six pound youngster, giving a total value of nearly $5,000,000000, or near 1y three times that of the corn crop.
 Detailed information concerning the baby crop, it's distribution, variation in different localities and the like, while naturally not so complete as similar data covering the corn crop, is far more interesting. AS might be expected, New York, because of it's greater population, produced the greatest number of babies of any one state last year with 200S65, or nearly one-tenth of the total. It was not, however, the leading state, if the in crease in babies to each one thou sand of the population be taken into account. Figured on this basis North Dakota heads the list with 36.5 births, closely followed by Utah with 35.2, Oklahoma with 33.7 and Texas with 32.9 At the other end of the list comes Maine with 17.6 and New Hampshire with IS. But in spite of the low ratio for the New England states, the figures show that the proportionate increase over the pre- ceding decade was greater there than in any other group of states. In gen. eral terms, however, the figures indi- cate that the West is the best terri tory for babies, just as it is the big gest corn producer. No hard and fast rule can be laid down because of the seemingly unexplainable discrep- ancies which occur, as for instance in the case of West Virginia and Vir- ginia. The excess of the birth rate over the death rate in the former is 2S.4 per 1000 population, while in the latter it is only T.
 Perhaps the most anamolous fea- ture concerning the baby crop is that while it continues to increase, the size of the average family is. decreas- ing In 1879 the number of persons constituting an average family was 5.1 persons. In 1880 it had decreased I 5; in 1890 to 4.9, and in 1900 to II, How then does the baby crop continue to increase?
 Undeniably Uncle Sam is conserv- ing his baby crop. The birth rates in Italy, Hungary and Austria, for ex- ample, are all higher than in, this country, but the excess of births over deaths is far lowerAlittle more than one-half indeed of the figures here. In word, Uncle Sam is saving his babies, and the; manner in. which he is doing it is one of the most remark able stories of progress ever written.
 There is, of course, no fedora Sec retary of Infants, such as the Secre- tary of Agriculture who advises farm CTS in thousands of pamphlets. yearly concerning the best methods to pur- sue in raising crops. But all over