when New York was the great wheat-producing state 

 of the Union. The average yield of wheat per acre in 

 New York for the last 10 years was about 18 bushels. 

 For the first five years of that lo-year period it was 

 18.4 bushels, and for the last five 17.4 bushels. In the 

 farther West, Kansas takes high rank as a wheat pro- 

 ducer. Its average yield per acre for the last 10 years 

 was 14.16 bushels. For the first five of those years it 

 was 15.14 and for the last five 13.18. Up in the North- 

 west, Minnesota wheat has made a name all over the 

 world. Her average yield per acre for the same 10 

 years was 12.96 bushels. For the first five years it was 

 13.12 and for the last five 12.8. We perceive here the 

 working of a uniform law, independent of location, soil 

 or climate. It is the law of a diminishing return due 

 to soil destruction. Apply this to the country at large, 

 and it reduces agriculture to the condition of a bank 

 whose depositors are steadily drawing out more money 

 than they put in. 



What is true in this instance is true of our agricul- 

 ture as a whole. In no other important country in the 

 world, with the exception of Russia, is the industry 

 that must be the foundation of every state, at so low an 

 ebb as in our own. According to the last census the 

 average annual product per acre of the farms of the 

 whole United States was worth $11.38. It is little 

 more than a respectable rental in communities where 

 the soil is properly cared for and made to give a reason- 

 able return for cultivation. There were but two states 

 in the Union whose total value of farm products was 



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