XLVIII THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



that "Wheat was successfully produced in central New York for 

 something like 40 years. During the latter part of that period the 

 yields began to decline, and at the end of another 20 years, they were 

 so- low that exclusive wheat growing became unprofitable. Ohio, 

 Indiana, Illinois and Iowa have each in turn repeated the history 

 of New York. The soils of these states were productive in the begin- 

 ing, and it required 40, 50 or 60 years for the single crop system to 

 materially reduce the yields." 



Now in the east we find in many regions abandoned farms with 

 farm houses in every stage of decay. The average yield of wheat in 

 New York State as recently as 1898 was 21-2 bushels per acre; in 

 1907 it was 17 • 3 . In the same short time the average yield in Indiana 

 fell from 15-6 to 14-4 bushels; in Minnesota from 15-8 to 13; in North 

 Dakota from 14-4 to 10; in Oklahoma from 14-9 to 9. 



As has been remarked by Mr. Hill, "instead of preserving the 

 fertility of their lands, the farmers have gone in search of new soils 

 to be skinned, robbed and abandoned as soon as the old showed signs 

 of exhaustion. Now that they have reached the jumping-off place, 

 there is no longer any 'west' to move into."* The direct interest 

 which this has for us lies in the fact that there being no more 

 "West" to move into, the stream has turned north and is now moving 

 into the Canadian Northwest. 



We have here an illustration of the truth of Lord Bacon's 

 observation that "The principal thing that hath been the destruction 

 of most plantations hath been the base and hasty drawing of profit 

 in the first years." 



The Committee on Lands of the Canadian Commission of Con- 

 servation under the able chairmanship of Dr. J. W. Robertson is 

 now carrying on an agricultural survey of the Dominion. They 

 visited and examined, in 1912, 1212 farms in the several provinces 

 of the Dominion, and while in the eastern provinces, speaking generally, 

 from 25 to 50 per cent of the farmers showed an increase in the yield 

 of their farms during the past 10 years; of the 100 farms examined in 

 Manitoba not one farmer reported an increase in the yield per acre 

 and 46 per cent reported an actual decrease. This decrease, as Dr. 

 Robertson remarks, must be concurrent with exhaustion of fertility. f 



This decline in fertility with impoverishment and impending 

 exhaustion of the soil is due, of course, to the growing of a single 

 crop or to other bad practices in farming. 



The land on the western prairies and many other parts of Canada 

 and the United States is at the present time being mined, not farmed. 



*Highways of Progress, p. 78. 



tAnnual Report, Commission of Conservation, 1912, p. 59. 



