16 INDIAN CORN. 



more of corn from an acre of ground than his neigh- 

 bor gets, under like circumstances, will undoubtedly, 

 other things being equal, outstrip his neighbor in the 

 race of prosperity. If this is true in reference to in- 

 dividuals, it is equally so and the effect is far more 

 striking in reference to communities. 



Let us take, for example, the corn crop of the 

 United States, and see what the difference would 

 amount to, in the aggregate, if every farmer in the 

 country, at the period of the last census, had raised, 

 with little or no additional expense, five bushels more 

 to the acre. This result was not merely possible, but 

 easy to accomplish, and would have made a net addi- 

 tion of nearly one hundred and thirty million bushels 

 of corn to the product for that year. This being the 

 difference on one crop out of a dozen or more, we 

 may form some idea of the total excess that would 

 result, in a single season, from even a small increase 

 all around in the ratio of production. 



Now here, gentlemen, is the point which ought to 

 arrest your attention. The average yield per acre, 

 throughout the country, is entirely below what it 

 should be. The product of Indian corn might just as 

 well be, on a general average, fifty bushels to the acre 

 as thirty or thirty-five ; and in putting the amount at 

 fifty bushels, the standard is still too low. 



It is easy, however, to perceive, and is well under- 

 stood, that the rate of yield here complained of is the 

 fault of a part of the agricultural community only, 

 and not of the whole ; and it is but just to remark, 

 that low as this average appears, it is nevertheless 



