Corn Growers' Association. 343 



States alone, the inexhausible forces of nature would produce an- 

 nually, without effort and without cost, 5,200,000 extra bushels of 

 corn, 15,000,000 extra bushels of wheat, 20,000,000 extra bushels 

 of oats, 1,500,000 extra bushels of barley, 21,000,000 extra 

 bushels of potatoes." 



The average yield of corn per acre for the United States is 

 about 30 bushels. This will not pay for the labor of producing and 

 the rent of the land. There awaits the corn breeder, who will pro- 

 duce a strain of corn that will add 10 bushels, even, to this aver- 

 age yield, a fame far greater and more lasting than that of the 

 admiral who can safely lead a fleet of sixteen battle ships around 

 the Horn. He will become a benefactor of the human race far 

 more beneficient than the trust magnate who spends his declining 

 days in trying to give away his fortune. He may not become as 

 rich as Rockefeller, nor as far-famed as Roosevelt, but he will 

 spend his declining days in the satisfaction of knowing that his life 

 has been spent for the benefit of all mankind. 



SOME EXPERIMENTS ON MISSOURI SOILS. 



(M. F. Miller, Missouri Agricultural College.) 



The wave of national prosperity which has been sweeping over 

 the country during the past decade has exerted a most important 

 influence upon the American farmer. Few classes of people have 

 reaped such rich reward from these extraordinary commercial con- 

 ditions as the men on the farm. Crops have generally been good 

 (a fact to which a large share of the country's prosperity has been 

 due), prices have been high and most farmers of the corn belt 

 have made money. The farmer has seen his land rise in value 

 from $30.00 to $60.00, or from $50.00 to $100.00 an acre during 

 this time, while his tax rate has remained almost unchanged. He 

 has sold his stock and grain at prices unknown since the close of 

 the Civil War, and as a result his bank account has increased, and 

 he has been able to add greatly to his farm improvements. But 

 with the coming of a money stringency, with a less valuation on his 

 products, he is now confronted with this problem: How am I to 

 pay 5 per cent or 6 per cent on the present valuation of my farm, 

 with a lessened valuation of products, with the productive capacity 

 of my soil gradually decreasing and the possibility of a series of 

 years of less abundant harvest before me? 



