292 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



" The rate of increas-e for cotton farms is highest, 48.2 per cent . . . and the 

 lowest of all [are] the dairy farms, with au increase of 25.8 per cent." The 

 most important causes assigned in explanation of this increase of farm values 

 are the increase in prices received for farm products during the past 5 years 

 and the pressure of new demand for land upon a fixed area. Incidentally, how- 

 ever, very large effects in increasing values " have been derived from better cul- 

 tural methods, from the substitution of profitable for unprofitable crops, by 

 the adoption of more intensive culture and crop, by better applied labor, by 

 larger and cheaper facilities for I'eaching markets, and by some improvements 

 in the business features of marketing products. Each one of these causes is of 

 large account and all together combine to make the net return per acre larger 

 than it was 5 years ago by an amount sufficient to raise the capitalization of 

 farm lands in a considerable degree." 



The influences affecting both the increase and decrease of farm real-estate 

 values are itemized and grouiied according to the economic phenomena and con- 

 ditions most noticeable throughout the North Atlantic, South Atlantic, North Cen- 

 tral, South Central, and Western groups of States. These conditions are giving 

 rise to movements in population which tend to raise values where they are most 

 needed, namely, in the South, in the semiarid regions of the West, and in " the 

 depressed East." The author points out the importance of the adjustment of 

 urban and rural populations in promoting national welfare, and concludes that 

 " high prices of lands necessarily require that there shall not be too large a per- 

 centage of total population engaged in agriculture, and the nonagricultural 

 population must be prosperous so as to pay profitable prices for agricultural 

 products." 



Agriculture in the United States, ,J. ,T. Macfarlane (Coin. Amer., 3 {1906), 

 'No. 1, pp. 6-S, dgms. 3). — Statistics relating to the increased yields and values 

 of staple agricultural products are reported and discussed, the data being com- 

 piled in great measure from the census of 1000 and from the publications of 

 this Department for the years 1900 to 1005, inclusive. The economic factors 

 contributing to the great development of the agricultural wealth of the United 

 States are also enumerated. 



The world's agriculture, J. J. Macfarlane (Com. Amcr.. 3 {1906), No. 3, 

 pp. 10-12, (Iffms. 3). — By means of diagrams the author discusses the relative 

 proportions of land of the world's leading nations that are devoted to cereal 

 production, to pasture, and to forests, as well as the extent of cultivated, cul- 

 tivable, and waste land in each country. 



Statistics are i)resented of the present population of the various countries 

 and of the world's cereal production in 1905. The average yields of leading 

 cereals for the five years 1001-1905, expressed in millions of bushels, are as 

 follows: Oats, 3,371; wheat, 3,160; corn, 2,896; rye, 1,581; barley, 1,330. 

 From a study of all the data presented the author believes that no nation at 

 present is equal to the United States in agricultural area or wealth, and that 

 there is very little prospect of any being so in the near future. 



The value relations of buildings, live stock, and implements to fixed 

 capital, Clausen {Jour. Laiidw., 54 {1906), No. 3, pp. 217-234). — The author 

 defines fixed or basic capital {Grumlkapiial) as the combined value of land and 

 buildings, and discusses the value relation to each other of the different ele- 

 ments of capital invested in agriculture. 



The Province of Schleswig-Holstein is divided into 5 groups according to 

 certain definite characteristics of the land, and statistics are presented of each 

 group which show the relation of cultivated area to total area; the estimated 

 value of estates not including improvements ; the percentage of investments in 

 buildings, live stock, and implements ; the value per hectare of total area in- 



