THE UNIVERSITY AND THE FARM 103 



other method than by simply taking up more land. The area of im- 

 proved land has, of course, increased pretty rapidly in the past de- 

 cade or two, but it has not increased as fast as our population. To be 

 sure, improved methods of agriculture might render an equal rate of 

 increase unnecessary. Still there must be some relation between the 

 rate of increase of population and that of the increase of improved 

 farm land in a country where land is still open to occupation. When 

 the land has all been occupied, then the relation must be different and 

 a larger number of people must be fed from each acre. Speaking gen- 

 erally, we have reached that condition in the United States and in 

 Illinois. In other words, we have reached the point of what is called 

 decreasing returns under given conditions of agricultural practise. In 

 Illinois in 1920, the improved land in farms was approximately three- 

 fourths of a million acres less than it was ten years before. In the 

 meantime, the estimated value of all farm property had risen from 

 3.9 billion to 6.7 billion, two billions of this increase being in land, 

 three hundred millions in buildings, and one hundred and forty 

 millions in implements and machinery. In other words, the value of 

 the land increased in the decade 70 per cent, that of the buildings 73 

 per cent, and that of implements and machinery 202 per cent. These 

 facts also, due regard being had to other conditions, may fairly be 

 interpreted as evidence that we have reached the point of decreasing 

 returns under given conditions of agricultural practise. 



Again, the average value per farm has increased nearly five times 

 in the past thirty years, practically all of the increase being in land 

 and buildings, and the main part of it in land. 



Another significant fact for Illinois is that, generally speaking, 

 the number of farms of every size has decreased excepting those be- 

 tween one hundred and five hundred acres. The tendency seems to 

 be that the usual farm shall be between those limits. Another fact of 

 some importance, altho I cannot help thinking that it is a temporary 

 phenomenon, is the change in the character of the cereal crops in the 

 decade just closed. In the ten years closing in 1919, there was a de- 

 crease of 21 per cent in the acreage of corn harvested and an increase 

 of nearly 88 per cent in the acreage of wheat harvested. This change 

 was probably due to the demand of the war, exerting itself through 

 the higher prices offered by governments for wheat. The result, of 

 course, was the devotion of land, better suited to corn, to the produc- 

 tion of wheat. In other words, the land was not being put to its most 

 socially productive use, using the term "productive" with reference to 

 total actual production. 



