24 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Sharp fluctuation of yield and price from season to season tends 

 to stimulate speculative and superficial farming and to discourage 

 the systematic crop rotation and thorough cultural practice which 

 are essential to an enduring and economically sound agriculture. It 

 is obvious that, in large measure, stabilization of production must be 

 brought about through the use of better adapted or improved crop 

 varieties, more systematic and rational crop rotations, and improved 

 agricultural practice generally, including, in many sections, larger 

 attention to live-stock production. 



The extent to which the productiveness of such a crop as corn can 

 be improved through continued selection is illustrated strikingly by 

 the results of work done by department specialists. For 14 seasons the 

 yields of 10-acre fields of corn, planted on a 3,000-acre farm in Ohio 

 with seed selected from the department cooperative improvement 

 plots on the farm, have been contrasted with the farm yields of the 

 same variety of corn less rigidly selected and grown under identical 

 cultural conditions. During the first seven-year period the fields 

 planted with department seed yielded 13.3 bushels per acre more than 

 the farm fields, while for the second seven years the increase averaged 

 21.8 bushels per acre. 



It should not be inferred that such increases in yield can be 

 secured except through very efficient crop-improvement work; yet 

 it is obvious that, as the principles of crop improvement are better 

 understood and more generally applied, larger yields per acre should 

 result. In addition, a great deal can be accomplished through in- 

 crease of soil fertility and better cultural methods. Enough has 

 been done in this direction by the State experiment stations and the 

 department, and also by good farmers, to justify the expectation that 

 considerably increased acre yields gradually will be brought about in 

 a large part of the area adapted to the staple food crops. 



EXTENSION OF AREAS OF PRODUCTION. 



Very destructive climatic conditions never occur in this country 

 with equal severity throughout all the staple-crop regions. It is 

 highly desirable, therefore, further to broaden the areas for these 

 staples as far as experience and sound economics may warrant. 

 While progress in this direction necessarily is slow, it is gratifying 

 to note that in recent years the production of corn in the Southern 



