The Mena weekly star. (Mena, Ark.) 1904-1977, 1920-12-23
CROP VALUES DROP
S5,OOO,OOO,OOO
Despite One of Largest Haryests
Price Declines Put Value Far Be-
low Last Year's-Total for This
Year. s9.l4s, O0O,0 600.

Washington, Dec. 14.-Shrinkage of
values of farm crops has placed their
total worth this year at almost 5 bill
lion dollars less than last year. altho
the 1920 harvest was one of the most
abundant in the nations history with
half dozen crops breaking records.
The important farm crops, which
comprise about 80 per cent of the val
ue of all farm crops, were valued
this year at 148,519,0 900 by the de-
partmcnt Of agriculture today in it's
final estimates.
Last year these crops were valued
at $14,087, $4,000. Acreage devoted
to the important crops also decreased,
the total being ISL ,062, 400 this year,
as compared with 56,162,112 last
year.
Revise Earlier Estimates.
1.-THE extraordinary character Of the
harvests, which have proven to be
among the most abundant in the coun-
try's history, Notwithstanding begin
nings about as unpromising as known,
is emphasized by the December revis-
ion of estimates" the department
said in a statement. "The final out
come of the 1920 wheat harvest, win
ter and spring combined, is now es-
timated at 789,878,000 bushels, COM
pared with 934,265,000 bushels in 1919,
this being an increase over the earlier
estimates for 1920 of 80 100000 BUSH
els. The 1920 acreage abandoned from
winter killing was less than expected.
"The report of increase over earlier
expectations of winter wheat produced
come from almost every important
winter wheat state, the greatest gain
-13 million is in Kansas, the lead
ing producer of winter wheat. In that
state the increase was helped by an
area of over l million acres of volun-
teer wheat sprouted from scattered
grain in the autumn of 1919.
Acreage Little Less Than Last Years.
I'm general, it appears that the re-
duction in crop acreage in 1910 below
1919 is less than was thought and re-
ported at the beginning of the crop sea-
son, but the unexpected happened and
notwithstanding the early unfavorable
conditions for farm work efforts of
the farmers to fully seed their fields,
assisted by favoring days that came
late in the planting period, resulted in
planting greater than anticipated"
Increases in almost every crop were
reported in the revised production fig
ures, as compared with preliminary es-
Inmates announced in November. Corn,
with record crop, shown an increase
of about 33 million bushels; winter
wheat an increase of almost 48 mil
lion bushels; spring wheat decrease
of 8 million bushels; oats an increase
of almost 20 million bushels; barley
increased almost IL million bushels;
potatoes increased million bushels,
and tobacco increased 32 million
pounds. The yield of corn an acre set
a record with an average production
of 800 bushels. Only once before has
the average yield of an acre exceeded
thirty bushels and that was in 1906
when 1913 bushels was made.
Corn Crop Larger by 374 Million Blu.
While the corn crop is record one,
its value this year is 1862 million less
than last years crop, which was small
er by 374 million bushels. The price
being paid to farmers for corn Decem-
Der /, was announced by the depart
ment at 67.7 cents bushel, as COM
pared with $1.349 year ago.