164 THE LANDED INTEREST. 



with safety from the most remote fields of 

 production. 



The seasons in the United States during the 

 last few years have been the most productive 

 ever known. The yield of wheat and Indian 

 corn has been unprecedented, and this has been 

 concurrent with fair prices and a ready European 

 market, the home supply in which has been con- 

 tracted by unfavourable seasons. But though 

 this has encouraged the building of railways 

 A fall in still further west, and the extension of wheat 



price in 



America and corn cultivation, it is a remarkable fact that, 



has been 



met by in the last sixteen years, while the average price 



larger 



acreage of o f both has fallen in the latter half of that period 



corn, and 



increased ^ o to A.O per cent., the acreage has increased 50 



produc- 



to 60, the average yield per acre in both cases 

 continuing the same. As yet the prairie-land 

 shows no sign of exhaustion, and that not in 

 the newly-broken lands only, but also in those 

 which have been in continued cultivation for a 

 considerable time. In the comparatively old 

 State of Illinois the yield of wheat per acre 

 has never been higher than in the last three 

 years. It is now twenty-two years since Pro- 



