90 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



A comparison of the imports in 1913-14 with 1914-15 shows that there was a 

 decrease of 1.39 per cent in the receipts of wheat, including flour, 11.97 per 

 cent decrease in the receipts of meat, 8.67 per cent decrease for sugar, and 6.47 

 per cent decrease for butter. For bacon and hams, cheese, fruits, and rice there 

 was an Increase. 



Systems of farming and the production of food — the need for more tillage, 

 T. H. MiDDLETON {Jour. Bd. Agr. [London], 22 {1915), No. 6, pp. 520^33).— 

 The author has restricted his discussion to three .systems of farming: (1) The 

 production of meat on grass land, (2) tlie production of milk on grass land, 

 and (3) the production of food crops and meat from arable land. The unit of 

 measurement used to indicate the efficiency of the different systems was the 

 energy value for a day's rations of a man. The meat produced on an acre of 

 poor pasture will supply 11 days' rations for a man, on rich pasture 140 ; dairy 

 farming on good gra.ss, 193 days' rations ; and mixed arable farming on good 

 land 296 days' rations. 



The land question and the condition of agricultural labor {Final Rpt. Com. 

 Indus. Relations [U. S.], 1915, pp. 121-132). — As a result of its study of tenancy 

 in the Southwestern States, the commission recommends that there be de- 

 veloped through legislation a long-time farm lease which will give fair rents, 

 security of tenure, and protection of the interests of the tenant in the matter 

 of such improvements as he may make on a leasehold in his possession ; also 

 that national and state land commissions be organize<l to act as land courts with 

 powers to hear evidence given by landlords and tenants as to questions that 

 have to do with fair rents, fixity of tenure, and impi-overaents made by tenants 

 on landlords' property. These commissions should also operate farm bureaus 

 to act as agents between landlords and tenants in the distribution of tenant 

 labor, the preparation of equitable contracts, assi.st home-seeking farmers, and 

 secure a better distribution of seasonal farm labor. 



The development of better credit facilities through the assistance of the 

 Government and the cooperative organization of farmers and tenants is recom- 

 mended. There should also be modernizetl rural schools and compulsory educa- 

 tion of children, and a revision of the taxation sy.stem so as to exempt from 

 taxation all improvements and to tax unused land at its full rental value. 



Farmers and farm laborers {Final Rpt. Com. Indus. Relatione [U. S.], 1915, 

 pp. 398-401). — The commission recommends "that Ck)ngress and the various 

 States pass rural credit acts that will give to the small American farmer the 

 same privileges and benefits that for so long a time have been enjoyed by the 

 small farmers in Germany and other European countries, which, following Ger- 

 many, have adopted runil credit systems. We recommend serious consideration 

 to adapting the Irish land bill and the Australian system of state colonization 

 to our American conditions. It is not our intention, in this report, to enter into 

 minute details as to how this should be carried out. In a general way, however, 

 we believe it not only desirable, but practicable, for the Federal Government, 

 through its Department of Agriculture, and the various States, through their 

 departments of agriculture, to .secure large bodies of land at appraised actual 

 values, that have been thoroughly tested by experts for their quality, issuing 

 bonds for the payment for same, if need be, and to cut them up into small par- 

 cels, making the necessary iniprovemonts, and selling them to qualified colonists 

 with small first payments, making the balance payable in. say, thirty years on 

 the amortization plan, the deferred payments bearing only the same rate of 

 interest that the Government itself is calle<l upon to pay, plus a small addition 

 to cover the cost of government administration. We believe, in this way, the 

 most effective check can be created on the one hand to minimize farm tenancy, 

 and on the other hand to make it possible for the farm laborer and the farm 



