28 ANNUAL. REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



facts were assembled in detail for the States, it would be found that 

 the percentafje of increase in yield in many of them is <;reater than 

 the percentafje of normal increase in population; that is, the increase 

 by births over deaths in the old native element. 



Such is the fact with regard to wheat for the fourth decade, as 

 compared with the preceding one, in 26 States, and 2 of the States 

 are all but ready to join them. In 14 States corn production per 

 acre has increased faster than the normal increase of population and 

 this is almost true of 5 more States. The number of States in this 

 list in the case of barley is 21; rye, 30; buckwheat, 19; cotton, 3; 

 potatoes, 24; hay, 35; and more or less States are almost ready to 

 enter this list in the case of all crops. 



A demand that is more difficult to fulfill in production per acre is 

 for an increase that equals or exceeds the actual increase of popula- 

 tion, including the immigrants and the temporarily high birth rate 

 of the foreign born. But, notwithstanding the fact that this difhculty 

 is greater in the United States than it is in all other countries that 

 have practically ceased to take much new land into cultivation, many 

 of the States of this Nation are each maintaining an increase of pro- 

 duction in the case of one or more prominent crops that is greater 

 than the actual increase of population. Ten States are doing this in 

 the case of corn; for wheat the number is 22; for oats, 16; for cotton 

 and tobacco, 1 each; for rye, 21 ; for potatoes, 15; and for hay, 25. 



We can not look for any other result than that the yields per acre 

 of all our crops shall increase at an even faster rate in the future, in 

 view of the intense interest with which our people are turning their 

 attention toward agricultural improvement. If there are certain 

 forces at work which, if unchecked and made more prevalent, will in 

 the future compel us to bid against the world for food, the counter- 

 acting forces have nevertheless been already set in motion, with the 

 promise of increasing effect. 



INCOME PER ACRE. 



The farmer has benefited more than others from the changed con- 

 ditions which have manifested themselves in increased cost of living. 

 For instance, the product of 1 acre of corn in 1899 was worth on the 

 farm $8.51, but ten years later it was worth $15.20, an increase in 

 farm value amounting to 78.6 per cent. Similarly, wheat increased 

 in farm value 114 per cent, tobacco 56.2 per cent, and cotton 65.6 

 per cent. Ten leading crops taken together — including, besides those 

 mentioned, oats, barley, r3^e, buckwheat, potatoes, and hay — in- 

 creased 72.7 per cent in farm value. 



This, of course, is no advantage to the farmer if the increase in 

 price of the things he has to buy is still greater. To ascertain the 



