4 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



voted to the production of crops that did not have to meet direct 

 competition with staple products of the West. The farmers of the 

 Eastern states have found themselves in much the condition and 

 confronted by problems similar to those that have influenced the 

 course of agriculture in those countries of Europe that are not 

 shielded by a protective tariff. The wheat-growing and the meat- 

 producing farms of Great Britain and the grain fields of northern 

 and south-eastern Europe have been aifected by the same causes and 

 in the same way as the general farms of Pennsylvania, New York 

 and Maryland. 



Gradually, however, the good lands of the West have been oc- 

 cupied and their surplus stores of fertility are so far used up that 

 it is now necessary to farm less extensively, with more skill and at 

 higher cost. Moreover, great cities have grown up in the Valley of 

 the Mississippi and these are r'apidly increasing in number and 

 population. There is, itheref ore, at the present time a home market 

 in the Central West and the West, that requires large and con- 

 tinually larger supplies of food, thus reducing the surplus for ship- 

 ment to distant places. 



During these years of transition, the farmers of the East, with 

 much stress and trial, have been adjusting themselves and their 

 properties to the new and, apparently inexorable conditions. They 

 have sought and practised new methods and have become proficient 

 therein; methods that lare in accord with the modern science of agri- 

 culture. They made their minds receptive to the teachings of the 

 successful experience of others and to the guidance of those who 

 are devoting themselves to the elucidation of the problems of the 

 farm. They have either learned to meet the new adverse conditions 

 — ^or they have lost in their contest with changing, modern economic 

 forces. And now, that this battle has been fought, the conditions 

 are readjusting in such a way as to lessen the competition of the 

 West and, by reason of the growth of the population, to increase the 

 local home market. These influences have led to better conditions 

 that are reflected in the greater prosperity of farmers and in higher 

 prices for farm products and farm lands. 



The outlook for Eastern agriculture was never brighter; but the 

 advantages that are opening are not for those who fail to recognise 

 that conditions have changed and that methods and practices, to be 

 successful, must fit the time. We do not for an instant recommend 

 the relinquishment of the old and well tried methods of those who 

 went before us. On the contrary, our chief reliance must always 

 be in the_old well understood and tested methods. But no method 

 should be adhered to merely because it is old, or because it has the 

 sanction of the approval of a community; no method should be re- 

 garded as good enough so long as there is a possibility of improving 

 it and new methods should not be frowned upon because they are 

 new, but they should be viewed impartially, with a mind open to 

 conviction, and with the determination to take advantage of the good 

 that they Contain. In this way, by holding fast to the traditions of 

 the past and that which is tried and true and at the same time by 

 seeking and testing new methods and improvements, the most con- 

 servative, the safest and the best advance is made. As the new is 

 found to be secure it may be relied upon. 



