AMERICAN FARMING 463 



In 1900 there were 838,000,000 acres in farms in the United States, 

 and since then we have been adding to them about 15,000,000 acres each 

 year from the public lands of the country. During this time, however, 

 the population of the country has been increasing at the rate of about 

 one and one half million each year. The public lands of the country 

 that are suitable for agricultural purposes have practically all been taken 

 up ; the tide of immigration has been turned back from the Pacific coast, 

 and the competition for land already under cultivation has become much 

 more keen and, as a consequence, the values of farm real estates have 

 advanced generally throughout the country, but to the greatest extent 

 in the western states. Farm lands in some sections have doubled or 

 even tripled in value in the course of a few years. 



Together with the increased value of farm lands have gone other 

 changes that have had an important bearing on the agriculture of the 

 country. 



The development of methods of transportation and the extension 

 of railroads through the new agricultural lands have widened the 

 markets of the country, for both buying and selling. The introduction 

 of refrigerator car service has made possible the shipping of fruits, 

 meats and other perishable products across the continent. This has 

 resulted in bringing the products of cheap lands in competition with 

 the products of high-priced land in the eastern states. 



Another factor that has had an important bearing in this connection 

 has been the development of labor-saving farm machinery. If the 

 present wheat crop of the United States were harvested by the method 

 employed at the time of the civil war, it would require every man 

 of military age in the United States to work for at least two weeks in 

 wheat harvest. The invention of labor-saving machinery has increased 

 the producing power of the individual to such an extent that notwith- 

 standing the increase in the agricultural exports of the country from 

 $205,853,748 in 1858 to $1,017,396,404 in 1908, the percentage of the 

 population engaged in agriculture has decreased by decades as follows : 



1880 44.3 per cent. 



1890 37.7 per cent. 



1900 35.7 per cent. 



But notwithstanding the constant decrease in the proportion of the 

 population engaged in agriculture, the per capita production for the 

 entire population of the most important classes of agricultural products 

 has increased almost invariably. 



The following table gives the average per capita production by 

 decades, 1866-1908. These statistics are from the United States 

 Department of Agriculture : 



