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82 measure. Since about the middle of 1920 the quantity that was taken from the Treasury hoard has been, in process of replacement by the purchase of the silver produced by American mines.

For the number, extent and value of the farms of the United States there are available elaborate statistics of both the Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of the Census. Yet in spite of this wealth of material proper use of it can be made for the present purpose only after close scrutiny and analysis.

In 1916 the agricultural land of the United States, according to the data communicated to me by the Department of Agriculture, comprised 900,000,000 acres. The number of farms was about 6,400,000, this being estimated by interpolation between the census figures for 1910 and 1920. Inasmuch as the increase in number during that period was small, any error in this estimation will be insignificant.

On Jan. 1, 1920, according to the Census, there were 6,450,000 farms, comprising 955,676,000 acres of land. The improved acreage was 506,982,000, which was 53 per cent of the total. The percentage of improved land in 1910 was 54.4. There having been but relatively little change in this respect during the last 10 years, it will be near enough to estimate the proportion of improved lands in 1916 at 53 per cent. The average value of the improved agricultural land in 1916, according to a communication to me from the Department of Agriculture, was $69.45 per acre; of the unimproved