F Pi d as r America Spends $175,000,000 a 

 260 Year for Fertilizer. 



By Richard Spillane 



It is estimated that the American farmer pays in 

 excess of $175,000,000 a year for fertilizer. If he mixed 

 a little brains with his fertilizer he would get better 

 results. He is improving in his methods, but it will 

 be a long, long time before he overtakes the European 

 agriculturist, particularly the German. 



One of the indictments against the American 

 people is that, with the greatest natural advantages of 

 any inhabitants of the earth's surface, they make a 

 shockingly bad showing in comparison with their less 

 favored brothers. 



For example: In Europe, where the land has been 

 tilled for centuries upon centuries, the average yield 

 per acre of the great crops is approximately double 

 that of the United States. The European wheat crop 

 averages 33 bushels per acre; oats, 45 bushels per acre, 

 and potatoes, nearly 200 bushels per acre. In the 

 United States the yield averages: Wheat, 14 bushels 

 per acre; oats, 40 bushels per acre, and potatoes, a 

 trifle more than 97 bushels per acre. 



Broadly speaking, the foreign farmer studies his 

 soil; the American farmer does not. It has been said 

 of the American farmer that he is one of the greatest 

 slovens on earth. This may be rather a harsh judg- 

 ment, but certainly he merits sharp criticism. It is 

 not the grower of wheat, or oats, or corn, or potatoes 

 alone who neglects his opportunities. The cotton 

 planter is as bad a sinner as his northern fellow. The 

 average yield of cotton per acre in the United States 

 is 185 pounds. In Egypt the average yield per acre 

 is 400 pounds. There is not any more doubt that the 

 yield per acre in the United States could be brought 

 up to 400 pounds an acre than that the sun is going to 

 continue to shine. 



Europe started half a century before America to 

 nourish the land scientifically. The farmers there, 



