SOMETHING ABOUT AMERICAN FARMING.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1260, 23 April 1896, Page 4

SOMETHING ABOUT AMERICAN FARMING.

According to the most recent estimate of the authorities at Washington the number of farms in the United States is -1,501,000, the average size is 137 acres, and the average value, which is based upon the 1890 census, is 8580, or about 90s per acre. The inference, j is, that as a great deal of the land in the west is of less nominal value, much of the land in the eastern States is of considerable value, approximating closely in fact to the value of land in this country. The States in which j farms are most numerous are those ol j Ohio, Illinois, and New York, the last j named being considerably larger than England and Wales, with a great deal larger number of working farmers. In Ohio there aro 551,000 farms, in New York 220,000, and in Illinois 210,000, according to a recent statement in the American Agriculturist- The last word reminds us of the fact that English statesman generally use the word “ agriculturalist, ” which is less euphonious and certainly not more English. These figures easily enable us to understand the value of Stale experimental farms and agricultural stations, for, instead ot being simply conducted in the interest ot a mere county, they are run lor the farmers of a small nation. The average farm family in America, including.servants who are living upon the premises, is six persons, and tho average investment which a farmer has made in his farm, inclusive of the sum which has already been mentioned as applying to Ike soil, is 1,800, so that the aggregate capital is very considerable. Last year the various materials exported from the United States to the rest of the world amounted in value to L 158,000.000, but of this the value of the products of the soil amounted to L 110,000,000, no Jess than 79 per cent, of the whole of the exports pooling to Europe. It is a great deal for the .American farmers to say that they have exported commodities to the value of | such a huge sum, more especially when j we remember that a great deal of this j produce is of very low value in the j Lutes. As a inatttr of fact, the I American tanner exports GO per cent. . in value of all the exports from his! country. In addition, however, to the j exports, 12 per cent, of the population j of the States, which number represents | the relationship between agriculture • and the rest of the community, in j eiditiou to fee ling themselves, provide : j food for the remaining 53 per cent, of the people. | It has been frequently stated that j American farms are very, largely j mortgaged. Let us see wluit is exactly tho state of the case. There is a sum of L 320, on the average, upon every L2OOO of rural real estate, but or this sum a considerable portion is in the form of deferred payments upon the land or upon improvements on the j land, and it is considered very doubt- j ful whether any other form of real ; estate is encumbered in the saeae low decree. The number of persons ongaged in agricultural affairs, about 2b°noo,ooo, ; s more numerous than in previous years, but smaller in proportion to the inhabitants. In the year 1881), for example, agriculturists formed II per cent, of the entire population, and" numbered u little mote than 22,000,000. At tho time of the last census the area of land, under some form of cultivation covered 357,000,000 acres, wkilo the population was

05,000,000 in number, there being therefore about 51, acres per individual. It is a curious fact that in many of the States the number of farms decreased between 1880 and 1890. Almost everyone of the eastern States, including New York, show a large reduction, owing perhaps very largely to tho fact that tho land was abandoned for tho west, men preferring to cultivate virgin soil at small expense rather than to continue a system of agriculture which approximates very closely to that adopted in this country. The consequence is that useful farms in Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, and some other States, can Ire purchased, with their buildings and homesteads, for a mere song —-probably not more than two to four’s years’ purchase. In many cases these farms are within easy reach of an enormous population; but, like land in England which has been abandoned for some time, they would require a considerable outlay to bring them back into condition, and they would even then require to he worked upon the modern system. On the other hand, in such western States as Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, and Colorado tho number of f irms lias increased by from 200 to 500 per cent , and they will go on increasing The general result is that the net increase in the number of farms amounts to 13 per cent.., and the general value to 30 per cent. Wo have already referred to the encumbrance upon farms; a few details will prove interesting. Of tho total number of farms, 3,142,000 aro owned by tho occupiers, and of these 880,000 are to some extent mortgaged, or nearly one in six. The number of farms which are rented exceeds \\ million, oi about 31 per cent. It is worthy of notice that farms that are rented are chiefly in lho southern States, while the farms which are morlaged are chiefly in the corn and slock States; thus in New York and lowa there are in each case ( 7,000 mortgaged farms, while in Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, and many other States, from 10 to G2 per cent, of the farms are hired. The encumbrances on the firms occupied by their owner amount to 35 per cent, of their value; but the amount of the moitagos on what arc termed “aero tracts” amounts to about double the sum of the encumbrances upon these farms. In seven of the middle States, from which we obtain most ol our imparted produce, theamountof mortgages | on acre tracts varies from L 20,000,000 to L-13,000,000, and in one case, in 1 New York State, the total value of ! the mortages in both directions amounts i to 1770,000,000. Tho American farmer sellers very I considerably from the exposure ot his stock, ns well as from tho destruction of his crops. For instance, last year, of 15,000,000, horses 355,000 suecumbed to the weather, 29,000 being lost in Illinois alone, and 27,000 in Texas. The number of cattle lost was ! still larger, amounting in all to ! 2,112,000, or 4-2 percent., one half j being put down directly to winter exI posure; the number of sheep lost from 1 the same cause was still greater, 1 2,311,000, or 5 5 per cent,, of which 2'9 per cent, were put down to winter exposure. Lastly, the number of swine lost amounted to 4,071,000, or 9-2 per cent., over half a million being lost in one State alone, that of lowa, and 45G.Q00 in Illinois. We have therefore one advantage in our climate, although it may be regarded as a curious fact that we are nearer the

North Polo than any of Iho Stale;', some of which are completely frozen up for about half of the year. The whole of England, to put it more plainly is at a higher latitude than the capital of Manitoba, Winnipeg, while a great portion of England and Scotland is geographically as high as the southern half of Hudson’s Bay, which is practically situated, during a great part of the year, in the Polar regions, ft is estimated by tin? statistician of the American Agricultural .Department that in 19 years, i.c., in 1915, and, after admitting that the p’O rata increase will diminish materially as compared with that of each proceeding quarter of a century, the population will number at least 120,000,000. It is for this reason that it is believed the value of land will increase—perhaps! within the next 10 years—in a somewhat more marked manner than tae value of urban property. With the increased value there must necessarily be an increased value in the produce, unless, through the opening up of other countries, low prices are still maintained, when the American fanner will probably realise greater hardships than liave been connected with the landed system of this country. —Merlin, in the Feilil