Historically and comparatively, agriculture is the most important industry. In 1900 about nine-tenths of the total land area was inclosed in farms; the value of farm property ($2,004,316,897) was greater than that of any other state; as regards the total value of farm products in 1899 Illinois was surpassed only by Iowa; in the value of crops Illinois led all the states, and the values of property and of products were respectively 35.6% and 87.1% greater than at the end of the preceding decade. During the last half of the 19th century the number of farms increased rapidly, and the average size declined from 158 acres in 1850 to 127.6 acres in 1870 and 124.2 acres in 1900. The prevailing form of tenure is that of owners, 60.7% of the farms being so operated in 1900; but during the decade 1890-1900 the number of farms cultivated by cash tenants increased 30.8%, and the number by share tenants 24.5%, while the increase of cultivation by owners was only 1%. In proportion of farm land improved (84.5%), Illinois was surpassed only by Iowa among the states. Cereals form the most important agricultural product (600,107,378 bushels in 1899--in value about three-fourths of the total agricultural products of the state). In the production of cereals Illinois surpassed the other states at the close of each decade during the last half of the 19th century except that ending in 1890, when Iowa was the leading state. Indian corn and oats are the most valuable crops. The rank of Illinois in the production of Indian corn was first in 1899 with about one-fifth of the total product of the United States, and first in 1907[1] with nearly one-tenth of the total crop of the country (9,521,000 bushels out of 99,931,000). In 1879, in 1899 and in 1905 (when it produced 132,779,762 bushels out of 953,216,197 from the entire country) it was first among the states producing oats, but it was surpassed by Iowa in 1889, 1906 and 1907; in 1907 the Illinois crop was 101,675,000 bushels. From 1850 until 1879 Illinois also led in the production of wheat; the competition of the more western states, however, caused a great decline in both acreage and production of that cereal, the state's rank in the number of bushels produced declining to third in 1889 and to fourteenth in 1899, but the crop and yield per acre in 1902 was larger than any since 1894; in 1905 the state ranked ninth, in 1906 eighth and in 1907 fifth (the crop being 40,104,000 bushels) among the wheat-growing states of the country. The rank of the state in the growing of rye also declined from second in 1879 to eighth in 1899 and to ninth in 1907 (when the crop was 1,106,000 bushels), and the rank in the growing of barley from third in 1869 to sixteenth in 1899. In 1907 the barley crop was 600,000 bushels. Hay and forage are, after cereals, the most important crops; in 1907 2,664,000 acres