No. 6. 



DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 



323 



Value of Yield per acre of Five Cereal Crops, 1879 to 1899. U. S. Census 



1879, 1889, 1899. 



Crop. 



Wheat, 

 Corn, 

 Rye, . 

 Oats, 

 Barley, 







+ .09 



— .60 



—2.05 



—1.46 



—1.95 



The failure of our institutions to make a perci^ptible impression 

 upon the increase in bushels per acre is not due to incapacity in 

 dealing with the lines of work in which they are engaged, but in 

 their insufficient number and inadequate equipment and means of 

 support. For instance, in a State like Pennsylvania w^hat can one 

 institution do in the education of six millions of people in agricul- 

 ture when its efforts are confined to the students in its class rooms 

 and are limited to a few thousand dollars for equipment and em- 

 ployment of instruction force? 



KNOWLEDGE OF AGRICULTURE MUST BE GENERAL. 



It has been found that to secure an intelligent citizenship educa- 

 tion must be general. In like manner to secure an efficient agricul- 

 ture, accurate information respecting it must be put in possession of 

 the masses of farmers, and not be confined to the fraction of loss 

 than one ten thousandeth of 1 per cent, who are able to leave home 

 and attend an agricultural college. The instruction, to be effective 

 in increasing crop production, will have to be extended beyond the 

 college walls to the people out at work, and be fitted for their use. 



IMPROVED METHODS OP DISSEMINATION. 



If, also, anything like rapid improvement in our agriculture is 

 to be made, it will have to be through a more substantial form of 

 instruction than our present farmers' institutes provide, which meet 

 only a small number of farmers for a day or two each year, and then 

 furnish them only one or two periods of instruction of forty minutes 

 each upon any single topic. If the mass of farmers is to be in- 

 structed in the science and mystery of agriculture the information 

 will have to be given in some more effective way than by scattering 

 broadcast bulletins and reports upon agricultural subjects which 

 only the already well-to-do and educated read. 



If we are to have a better agriculture, one that will expand and 

 meet the needs of all of the generations yet to come, we must do 

 more than increase superficial acreage; we must make each acre 

 increase its product as the needs of mankind require. In short, we 

 must extend our acres downward. 



PRODUCTION PER ACRE. 



How far this .may be done is illustrated by well-authenticated 

 instances of maximum crop production in the United States. Sixty 

 bushels of wheat have been grown per acre; 71 bushels of barley; 



