AMERICAN FARMING 465 



important problem before him at the present time is the question of 

 reorganizing his farming methods so as to best fit the agricultural 

 conditions as they now exist. 



The unprecedented increase of values of farm products in recent 

 years resulting in a greatly increased cost of living to every one has 

 resulted in the most prosperous times the American farmer has ever 

 experienced, except during the civil war by those who stayed at home 

 and reaped the benefits of high prices. 



The consumer, on the other hand, is alarmed at the continued rise 

 in price of the necessities of life. He is interested in knowing what 

 the end is going to be and how much longer prices are going to rise. 



Writers who are ill-advised of the potential producing power of 

 American farms are freely predicting that we are rapidly approaching 

 the time when as a nation we shall not be able to produce sufficient 

 food stuffs for our own population. They forget that our farms are 

 not producing more than one half of what they are capable of doing. 

 Our average wheat yield is 14 bushels per acre; our average yield of 

 corn is 26 bushels, and of oats, 25 bushels; these yields can and will 

 be redoubled in the future as the high price of the products will demand. 



The profits of farming in the past gained from actual production 

 has not been in proportion to the profits derived from other industries. 

 The market price of farm products has tended toward the actual cost 

 of production of the average crop at current wages rather than the cost 

 of production of the part of the crop produced under the most unfavor- 

 able conditions. This is readily demonstrated by taking the actual 

 amount of time required to grow and harvest an acre of any of the 

 principal crops and calculating the time at current wages and the 

 average yields at farm prices. 



The results will show that the returns received for the time spent 

 will not be more than enough to pay current wages and six per cent, 

 interest on the investment in land and equipment. Farmers have 

 received greater returns from the increased value of their lands than 

 they have from the profits upon their productions. 



The increased prices of farm products are beginning to bring to 

 farmers a just return for labor expended and will do more than any- 

 thing else to turn the city dweller " back to the soil " and to keep the 

 country boy on the farm. There is no clanger of a shortage of food 

 supplies in this country, but higher prices must prevail in order to 

 develop the potential agricultural resources of the country. Aside from 

 the possibilities of doubling the present crop production on present area 

 under production, there remains the undeveloped agricultural lands of 

 the country. Aside from the limited amount of land suitable for agri- 

 cultural purposes still remaining in the ownership of the government, 

 the lands that may become valuable for agricultural purposes are of 



VOL. LXXVI.— 32. 



