production is expected to exceed that of 1895, owing to the large increase (16.2 per cent.) in the acreage. The following table, compiled from the reports of a special list of farmers whose returns the Department employs as an additional means of ascertaining the rate of yield of various crops, will be of interest as furnishing an independent comparison of corn and wheat production for the last three years: 36.105.188 *Average from 1890 to 1895. In the tables of production and exports of corn and wheat, the fiscal years to which the figures on exports relate are those begin 25.187,414 312.152.728 327.407.258 104.9 12.4 13.00 84,592,977 27.1 ning on July 1 in the years indicated. Thus, the exports set opposite the year 1895 are not for the calendar year 1895, nor for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1895, but for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1895, and ending June 30, 1896. In this way the exports are placed on the same line with the crop out of which they are mainly drawn. As the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1896, is incomplete, the corresponding space in the column of exports is necessarily left blank. The official figures on exports have, however, been issued for the six months ending on December 31, 1896, and it appears that the corn exported during that period amounted to 72,954,096 bushels, while the wheat, including flour reduced to its wheat equivalent at the rate of 4 bushels to the barrel, amounted to 94,017,622 bushels. The exports of these two cereals for the corresponding months of the preceding year amounted to 38,331,098 bushels of corn and 65,029,819 bushels of wheat. It will be seen that the exports of corn for the first six months of the current fiscal year amounted to 34,623,000 bushels more than those for the same period of the fiscal year preceding. During December, 1896, they amounted to 15,039,329 bushels. It thus appears that the low price is stimulating the foreign demand, which in turn has a tendency to stiffen the price. Corn, wheat and oats are by far the most important of our cereal crops. The production and exports of the two former have been given year by year from 1880 to 1896, inclusive. The production of oats is given in the following table for each year from 1890 to 1896, inclusive, together with the averages for those seven years and the two preceding decades. The crop of 1895 was the largest ever gathered, while that of 1896 was exceeded only by those of 1891 and 1895, the area of 1896 being larger than in any preceding year except 1895. Our exports of oats (including oatmeal reduced at the rate of 18 pounds to the bushel), rarely exceed 1 per cent. of the total crop, the highest ratio, 2 per cent. for the fiscal year 1889-90, having followed a crop of 751,515,000 bushels in 1889, the largest recorded until 1895. The export of oatmeal during the six months ending December, 1896, exceeded that of any entire fiscal year since 1886. NOTES ON FARM PRICES. CORN. The price per bushel was unprecedently low in 1889, when it fell to 28.3 cents on the average; the 1895 price fell still lower, reaching a minimum for that year of 25.3; the average for 1896 shows a further fall to 21.5 cents, nearly 4 cents below the lowest previous figure on the records of the Department. The more than usual concentration of the production in the great surplus states, where price is always lowest, the enormous total product, immediately following the heavy crop of 1895, both are added to the business depression unfortunately still continuing, and bring the value of the crop to a discouragingly low figure. An increased demand for wheat is not having the desired sustaining effect on the market for its sister cereal. WHEAT. Price in 1896, 72.6 cents a bushel, the highest since 1891, when it was 83.9 cents. The rise comes partially from a reduced supply, accompanied by smaller exports from Argentina, a poor crop in Europe (particularly in Russia, the most important source of supply), and a disastrous deficiency, with widespread famine and famine prices in India. It is feared that the wheat growers of the country will not profit so much by the better price as might have been wished for them; for the continued unfavorable weather conditions prevailing through the season and throughout the country, deteriorating both quality and quantity, finally left many who often have wheat to sell without sufficient for their own needs, and a large number of farmers were compelled to dispose of what surplus they had before the rise came. As usual, it is observable that the wheat price is far more dependent upon foreign supply and demand and less exclusively dependent on domestic supply than that of corn. OTHER CEREALS. As in the case of corn, the average price for 1895 was the lowest on the Department's records until 1896 came with a yet lower figure. The general movement of prices since 1889 is seen in the following table, which shows for each grain the ratio of each year's price to the mean of the eight years, that mean being taken as 100: The order in which the grains are placed, that of increasing relative price for 1896, is that, for the eight years generally, of increasing divergence from the corn price, by which most of the others appear to be regulated. Rye is the only minor cereal whose price is nearer to the wheat than the corn scale; and its percentage is in six cases out of eight intermediate. All prices were high in 1890 and 1891, and low in 1895; wheat was the only exception to prevailing low prices in 1889 and 1896, and high prices in 1892; while high and low percentages for 1893 and 1894 were equally distributed. POTATOES, IRISH. The greatly reduced product of 1896, as compared with 1895, is attended by a slightly increased price, from 26.6 to 28.7 cents a bushel, both prices being lower, as both crops were larger, than ever before 1895. HAY. The average price in 1895, $8.35 a ton, was lower than any before recorded, except $8.21 in 1883, $8.17 in 1884, and $7.21 in |