474 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE 



the unusiKtl avcrajic yields, bill ollit'i' lucu sliuuld i;('t ai)in()xiiiiately 

 tliese yields if Ihev know how to raise wheat. I venture that there is 

 no legitimate commercial business which is cajjable of yielding a greater 

 income on the capital and time invested Ihan the raising of wheat in 

 central ^'ew York. Dakota does not compete with the New Yorker 

 who raises thirly-six bushels to the acre! 



The secret of the whole matter is raising more wheat for fess money, 

 and then the securing of sufificient land to produce the desired income. 

 This raises several serious questions, and brings us at once to the very 

 heart of the current discussions respecting the agricultural depression. 

 There is said to be an overproduction of wheat. If there is, surely the 

 only lemedy is to grow less wheat; and the lesser production will come 

 when the price falls to a certain point. The whole question of produc- 

 tion and demand is a relative one, and it may be expected to regulate 

 itself in the long run by the natural laws of supply and demand. This 

 is not an agricultural question, but a commercial one. It arises in con- 

 nection with every manufactured product as w'ell as with wheat. In like 

 way, the number of farms and farmers will regulate itself; and this fact 

 takes the point from the customary calculations which predict the time 

 by ( om{ aring the increase of population with the number of farms, when 

 it is (Xi3ect( d that consumption will overtake production and the farmer 

 will be prosiierous. You may cite me to the fact that capital in farms is 

 less tlvxible ih n in mrnufactories, and that lands cannot readily change 

 hands; but I reply that while the land itself is a comparatively fixed in- 

 vestment, the kind of products which one shall produce is more flexible 

 than in other busine;*ses. There cannot be permanent overproduction. 

 Society is a self-sustaining organism. If agriculture adjusts itself to 

 new conditions more slowly than other interests do, the adjustment 

 nevertheless must come. 



An important point to consider in this connection is the fact that a 

 relative overproduction presses hardest upon the poorest farmers — upon 

 those who are raising the least per acre and who are thereby nearest the 

 verge of collapse. The man who grows thirty-six bushels of wheat to the 

 acre may keep at the business, w^hile the man who grows twenty bushels 

 goes to the wall. 



The cfimi)laint of overproduction is often only a misinterpretation of 

 a misunderstanding of the market, and a consequent inability to sell, 

 or it may be the measure of the inferiority of the product. I know a 

 farmer who last year grew one hundred bushels of potatoes to the acre 

 and has them in his cellar now. Another farmer grew three hundred 

 and fifty bushels and sold them from the field for eighty-two dollars. 

 The man who raised the less complains of over-production and now 

 plants beans: the man who raised the more now doubles his area. The 

 former is being crowded out in the inevitable struggle for existence, and 

 agriculture will be the gainer when he moves to town. There, under 

 the hand of an employer, he may succeed. He is of no use on the farm 

 except as a hireling. It is tlie pinch of necessity wiiich is clarifying the 

 country. 



We have been taught, I fear, that agriculture has some Divine right 

 which other occnpations have not. We must not deceive ourselves. Every- 

 thing must ultimately stand on its merits. Our civilization is one thing, 

 one structure, in which all the parts are working together for the good of 



