104 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 



Again, the character of the animal industry of Illinois has 

 changed in considerable degree in the past twenty or thirty years, 

 altho it is true that there were more cattle reported in the 1920 census 

 for Illinois than in the 1910 census. 



Again, notwithstanding a large increase in population, largely in 

 the cities, there has been, according to the best Census estimate, a re- 

 duction in the amount of milk produced in the state and in the amount 

 of butter made, altho the value of the milk, cream, and butterfat sold, 

 and of the butter and cheese made, is estimated by the census to have 

 increased 128 per cent. 



On the social side, the Census shows a decrease in the number of 

 farms operated by tenants; but the decrease is evidently all in the 

 class of cash tenants, or the most independent class of tenants. 



Summing these facts up, they seem to me to point in a general 

 way to certain conclusions. First, as already suggested, they indicate 

 that in Illinois, as elsewhere, we have reached the point where in our 

 agriculture we must expect to raise larger crops per unit, or to get more 

 products per unit, at increasing cost. If, in our attempt to raise our 

 crops on high-priced soil at increasing costs, we find ourselves unable 

 to compete with people raising similar crops on cheaper land in other 

 parts of the world, we shall be obliged either to resort to a system of 

 protection for agriculture, or we shall have to let part of our land go 

 out of use, as did Old England and later, New England. We shall 

 have on our hands the problem of abandoned farms. The obvious 

 conclusion is that we must seek that kind of agricultural activity in 

 which we are most efficient under our Illinois conditions. We must 

 make the most economical use possible of our land and machinery. 



We must also take notice of the fact that the industrial growth 

 of Illinois is likely to be rapid in the next twenty-five or thirty years. 

 Manufactories will be more numerous. That growth will bring to 

 our doors a larger home market. Our agriculture may perhaps direct 

 itself to supplying products peculiarly demanded by such a market. 

 Still, again, since the value per acre and per farm has increased and 

 will increase more, we must get a larger output per farm or per acre 

 in order to make our investment pay. 



Generally speaking, our policy in the past has been of necessity 

 large farms with crops of a single character or cereal crops of two 

 kinds. With the growth of a home market of industrial centers, 

 there will have to be more small farms producing the things demanded 

 for consumption in such centers. In other words, as population be- 

 comes denser, the most profitable farm may perhaps have to become 



