28 CAMPBELL'S SOIL CULTURE MANUAL 



CHAPTER V. 



SMALL FARMS; BETTER FARMING. 



The struggle to get that which will sustain life in 

 quantities sufficient to always satisfy all the people has 

 been going on since the garden of Eden ceased to yield 

 of its fruit an over-supply. It seems that there will never 

 be enough of the good things of life. There can never 

 be permanently any too great production of the things 

 which come from the soil to supply the needs of man. 

 The cry is ever for more. 



The people of the United States nave been favored 

 for the century and a quarter of national existence by 

 the fact of their always having near at hand a vast supply 

 of cheap unoccupied land, so that when production fell 

 below requirements some men could move out upon the 

 unused land and rapidly increase production by expan- 

 sion of the agricultural area. The statisticians of the 

 states have done much boasting of how the production 

 of their states has increased; but this increase has gener- 

 ally been because of the enlarged area under cultivation. 



But the cheap land is about all taken. Attention is 

 turned properly to the problem of how to get more out 

 of the land already under cultivation. Here is a great 

 corn state and a group of men conceive the idea that the 

 average yield per acre of corn can be increased from 30 

 to 40 bushels or perhaps more. Great idea, and the peo- 

 ple are delighted with the missionary work thus done. 

 Another learns of a new variety of wheat more productive 

 than any other and he is hailed as a great benefactor. 



