142 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



potency of seed, in varieties of wheat, nor to changes in any other out- 

 side conditions ; tliey have resulted from profound, but as yet not well 

 understood, alterations within the soil itself ; from changes which a 

 sufficiently early knowledge and care in its application undoubtedly could 

 have averted. 



The mean yield of wheat in the United States during the last ten 

 years of the century just closed was only 13.2 bushels per acre, scarcely 

 one-third, certainly not one-half, what the normal virgin capacity of the 

 soils once was. From nearly 40 million of acres in wheat, which should 

 have yielded between 1,000 and 1,500 million bushels per annum, we 

 have r alized but little over 500 million bushels. Instead of gross earn- 

 ings which should have amounted to 650 to over 900 million dollars an- 

 nually there has been realized only 330 million dollars, an annual shortage 

 of the wheat crop alone large enough, could it have been averted, to give 

 to each of the 48 states and territories between 7 and 14 million dollars 

 each year of that decade. To put greater emphasis upon this enormous 

 shrinkage in productive power let me say that during the period under 

 consideration tie n^ean yield j er acre of wheat in Germany, where more 

 attention has been devoted to the maintenance of soil fertility, was 26 

 bushels per acre and in the United Kingdom it exceeded 31 bushels. 

 Notwithstanding the fact that in European Russia the mean yield of 

 wheat has fallen as low as 9 bushels per acre, yet the aggregate wheat 

 product of Europe, according to statistics, exceeded that of the five 

 other continents by as many as 292 millions of bushels, and this, too, 

 notwithstanding the long time those fields have been under cultivation and 

 notwithstanding the fact that the United States had ten acres in wheat 

 for every square mile of surface in all Europe. Moreover, with Eu- 

 rope's large output of wheat she produces at the same time, of oats, of 

 barley and of rye nearly fourfold the crop grown in North America ; 

 the figures standing 4.362 million bushels for Europe against 1,099 

 millions for North America. Even when we combine the yields of 

 wheat, oats, barley and rye grown in North America with our great 

 staple, corn, the total output aggregates but 3,965 millions of bushels, as 

 compared with 6,413 millions harvested each year in Europe. 



To maintain a high j^roductive capacity in soils which are normally 

 rich ; to restore this capacity again to those in which it has been reduced ; 

 and to materially increase the yield in soils which arc naturally poor, is 

 clearly a matter of the highest order of national concern. Only when 

 this has been done docs it become possible to secure tl:e largest rj'.urns 

 from the best cultural methods ; from the most improved breeds and 

 strains of either plants or animals ; or from a full extension of com- 

 mercial and manufacturing met'ao Is for the disposal of agricultural 



