Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1872 [PAGE 195]

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191 department report, the maize crop of the United States has gathered weight and strength after the following magnificent fashion:

M a i z e C r o p of 1840 1850 1860 1869 " 1870.

t

.".

377,431,874 592,071,104 838, 792, 740 874,320,000 1,094,255,000

Bear in mind, please, that the estimates for 1869 and 1870 are from the report of the department of agriculture. These reports give the yield of maize crop in Illinois in 1860 and the increase of it since, in the following figures:

Bushels. Acres.

C r o p of I860 1869. 1870.

115,174, 777 121,500,000:5,237,068

!Nbw these figures show there must he a great mistake somewhere, for not only in Illinois, but in the whole country is the increase put down as greater, in the one year from 1869 to 1870, than from 1860 to 1869. In bushels Illinois gained only six millions from 1860 to 1869, but 89 millions from 1869 to 1870. In the United States there was but a gain of 35\ millions from 1860 to 1869, but a gain of 220 millions from 3869 to 1870. Such figures as these are so greatly opposed to the evidences of our senses, that they must be rejected, in so far as they claim to be a just estimate of the maize yield of the State of Illinois or of the United States. The estimate of 1860 I regard as too high by nearly one-half, and those of 1869 and 1870, from one-third to one-fifth. However, these estimates of the census and of the department of agriculture are the only ones we have, and are ^valuable for that reason. The yield of the leading grain and vegetable crops in millions, and fractions of millions of bushels, for the years named, were as follows:

1860 1869 1870

Maize Wheat Rye Oats Barley Buckwheat Potatoes...

838£ 173—

874^ 260x

21—

172*

22*

288|

15* 17f

110*

mi 17*

133|

1, 094£ 230| 15f 247* 26£ 9! 114|

From these figures it will be seen that maize not only has maintained the ascendency it had gained in 1860, but that its production was increasing, and apparently at the expense of rye, barley, and buckwheat, which are decreasing. Of the 1625 millions of bushels of grain, and including potatoes, grown in 1869—847 millions were maize, and of the