Maps showing the Range and Within the Range the Degree of Cultivation of Certain Principal Crops

This quartet of maps showing the eastern United States uses a clever combination of green and black shading to highlight the concentration of eight principal crops. A description of the various scales (somewhat vague) is provided at the bottom of the page. Wheat and rice, tobacco and hops, oats and cotton, and hay and sugar are the four pairs of commodities depicted. Corn is omitted, but possibly referenced on a different page. The sheet was originally issued as part of The Statistical Atlas of the United States Based on the Results of the Ninth Census, 1870, compiled by Census Superintendent Francis A. Walker. Lithographed by Julius Bien and published in 1874. The atlas serves as the ultimate 19th-century “data portrait” of a reunified nation, meticulously synthesizing geography, climate, and demographics into a visual manifesto of America’s industrial and economic potential.