DEVELOPMENT I.\ TIIK I \JIKD STATES 323 



in farms increased only 4.8 per cent. Further, this increase of 



10.9 per cent in the number of farms accounts very largely for 



acreage of improved land in farn {>er cent), 



so the increased acreage of land in crops (9.9 per cent 



contrast to the increase in the number of farms, the increase in 



the rural population was 1 1.2 per cent. It would appear that the 



in the population of towns and villages with less than 



2500 inhabitants was not much greater than the increase in the 



number of farms. In contrast to this comparatively small increase 



in the number of farms and in the rural population, the increase in 



the urban population amounted to 34.8 per cent. With these facts 



before us, it is easy to see that agriculture had reached practically 



its limit in 1900, so far as following the old method of expansion 



was concerned, and also that the four movements to which I re- 



1 had not gotten well enough started to keep pace with the 



increase in population which is rapidly concentrating in cities. 



During the nineteenth century the farmers produced very much 



than the people of the United States could consume, and 



urplus was shipped to foreign countries. As agriculture 



ped less rapidly and as the proportion of the people who 



lived in cities increased more rapidly, the exportation of the raw 



als of agriculture necessarily decreased. We have now 



d a stage in the history of this country when farrm 



average years do not produce much more of the raw materials 



<>r food, beverage, and clothing than is needed within the 



country. In poor years the production may not in the future 



equal the demands of the consumers. In exceptionally good 



years it will be possible to export a considerable amount of raw 



d or reserve it for the bad years to follow. I think it is 



loubtful whether the four new movements towards ar 



tural development which I M indicated above will be more 



than sufficient to keep pace with the movement of imputation. 



ugurating these four movements impossible to 



;h the population, it will be necessary in the 



futm 'he importation of supplies. 



h as development during the first decade of the new 

 century was not as rapid in agriculture as in other Industrie 



