of Agriculture said: "One of the most important 

 causes of deterioration, and I think I should put this 

 first of all, is the method and system of apiculture that 

 prevails throughout these states. Unquestionably the 

 soil has been abused" The richest region of the West 

 is no more exempt than New England or the South. 

 The soil of the West is being reduced in agricultural 

 potency by exactly the same processes which have 

 driven the farmer of the East, with all his advantage 

 of nearness to markets, from the field. 



Within the last 40 years a great part of the richest 

 land in the country has been brought under cultivation. 

 We should, therefore, in the same time, have raised 

 proportionately the yield of our principal crops per 

 acre, because the yield of old lands, if properly treated, 

 tends to increase rather than diminish. The year 1906 

 was one of large crops and can scarcely be taken as a 

 standard. We produced, for example, more corn that 

 year than had ever been grown in the United States in 

 a single year before. But the average yield per acre 

 was less than it was in 1872. We are barely keeping 

 the acre product stationary. The average wheat crop 

 of the country now ranges from \2 l 2 . in ordinary years, 

 to 15 bushels per acre in the best seasons. And so it 

 is on down the line. 



But the fact of soil waste becomes startUngiy evi- 

 dent when we examine the record of some states where 

 single cropping and other agricultural abuses have 

 been prevalent. Take the case of wheat, the main- 

 stay of single crop abuse. Many of us can remember 



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