546 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



zens, have annually crossed over into Canada in the hope of finding new 

 land that would bring rich returns from exploitive farming. A counter- 

 current of migration is even setting in from the West toward the East. 

 A good many western farmers are selling their lands at high prices and 

 moving to the cheaper lands on the Atlantic seaboard. Tension is felt 

 on all sides. The exhaustion of free lands has increased the price of 

 land all over the country. The rising price of land makes it more difficult 

 for the young man with slender capital to acquire a home on the land; 

 hence there is an increase in tenant farming. The situation is intensified 

 by the prevailing unsatisfactory system of renting land. Leases are us- 

 ually made for short terms. The renter has no interest in maintaining 

 the fertility, for he has no assurance that he will receive the benefit of it 

 He is interested only in immediate results. He therefore proceeds to rob 

 the soil by exploitive methods of farming similar to those which pre- 

 vailed when the land was first put into cultivation. As an indication of 

 the prevalence of short-term leases an illustration may be taken from a 

 single county in the State of Ohio. An enterprising newspaper published 

 in this county makes a specialty of securing data concerning the number 

 of tenants moving from one farm to another. In the spring of 1909 the 

 announcement of such removals occupied a full page of very condensed 

 reading matter in this newspaper. The paper states that it is the custom 

 in the county for renters to remain only one year on the farm. Continua- 

 tion of this custom means the ultimate ruin of both land owner and renter. 



From what has been stated above it is not surprising that the values of 

 farm products have risen to a marked degree in the past few years. This 

 has affected other industries. City people are 'beginning to turn toward 

 the land. This department receives many hundreds of letters annually 

 from people employed in manufacturing, mercantile, and transportation 

 industries asking for information that will enable them to become farmers. 



Not only has the value of farm products increased, but exports, espec- 

 ially of breadstuffs, have fallen off in a marked degree. Comparing the 

 five-year period ending in 1903 with that ending in 1908, the exports of 

 corn and its products decreased from 135 million bushels to 82 million 

 bushels, a decrease of 39 per cent. During the same time the exports of 

 wheat decreased from 212 million to 114 million bushels, a decrease of 

 46 per cent. If America is to retain the favorable balance of trade which 

 has characterized the past quarter of a century, it must be done not by 

 increase in acreage, as in the past, but by increase in yields per acre. 

 We no longer have unlimited areas of virgin soil to exploit. The question 

 whether we shall be able to meet the increased demands for food and 

 clothing by increasing the yields is a pertinent one. In this connection 

 the following statistics are of interest. 



