BUREAU OF STATISTICS, 715 



The largest list of States in the consideration of the various crops 

 in which proihiction per acre diirinii the period under consitk^ration 

 exceeded normal increase of population is found in the case of hay; 

 35 States are in this list with 5 more States havinij; increases nearly 

 sufficient for their entry, so that the hay crop of nearly the entire 

 United States has increased in production per acre faster than the 

 normal rate of increase of the population. 



COMPARISON WITH ACTUAL INCREASE OF POPULATION. 



A still more severe test than the foregoing ma}^ be placed upon the 

 increased production per acre of the crops under consideration, and 

 in this test the increase may be compared with the actual increase 

 of population which, as before explained, is greater than the normal 

 increase. Corn production per acre increased from 1886-1895 to 

 1896-1905 at a rate which quite or very nearly equaled the actual 

 increase of population in Delaware, ^laryland, Virginia, West Vir- 

 ginia, Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, South Dakota, and Utah. 

 The list for wheat contains 22 States and Territories distributed in 

 all parts of the United States. In the list for oats are 16 States; for 

 barley, 15 States; for rye, 21 States; for buckwheat, 18 States; for 

 cotton, only 1 State, Oklahoma, containing new land; for tobacco 

 only Wisconsin; for potatoes, 15 States, all in the potato belt; and 

 for hay, 25 States and Territories. 



A POTENTIAL FUTURE. 



The foregoing presentation of the information that is possessed 

 concerning the trend of agricultural production in this country in 

 comparison with ])opulation makes it jjlain that in spite of the fact 

 that the United States is now passing through some of the early and 

 middle phases of agricultural land exploitation, it nevertheless ap- 

 pears that the final stage of better agriculture and increased produc- 

 tion per acre has been reached in many States for a varying number 

 of crops, and that production per acre is not only beginning to exceed 

 the normal increase of pojiulation, but really to exceed the actual 

 increase. 



The ability of the soil and of the agricultural arts and sciences to 

 produce crops at a rate of increase greater than either the normal rate 

 of increase of population, or tlie normal as tem])orarily influenced by 

 immigration, lias been demonstrated times innumerable by the De- 

 partment of Agriculture, by the experiment stations, and by intelli- 

 gent farmers all over the country. The potentiality of agricultural 

 f)roducti()n as a national achievement sumcient for growth of popu- 

 ation has been so numerously and so thoroughly demonstrated as to 

 be now beyond intelligent question. The Farmers' Cooperative 

 Demonstration Work, now carried on in 12 cotton States, employs 

 375 traveling agents and has many tliousands of demonstrating farms. 

 It is proving by results on thousands of farms that i)re])aration of the 

 soil so as to make the best seed bed adds 100 ])er cent to the average 

 crop on similar lands witii an average preparation in the old way; 

 that the planting of the best seed makes a gain of 50 ]>er cent; and 

 that shallow, fre(|uent cultivation ])roduces an increase of another 50 

 per cent, making a total gain of 200 per cent, or a crop three times the 



