BIOLOGY OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION 95 



It is interesting that Lincoln should state the problem so 

 clearly, more than fifty years ago. 1 



My first suggestion is an inquiry as to the effect of greater thorough- 

 ness in all departments of agriculture than now prevails in the North- 

 west perhaps I might say in America. To speak entirely within 

 bounds, it is known that fifty bushels of wheat, or one hundred bushels 

 of Indian corn, can be produced from an acre. Less than a year ago I 

 saw it stated that a man, by extraordinary care and labor, had produced 

 of wheat what was equal to two hundred bushels from an acre. But 

 take fifty of wheat, and one hundred of corn, to be the possibility, and 

 compare it with the actual crops of the country. Many years ago I saw 

 it stated, in a patent-office report, that eighteen bushels was the average 

 crop throughout the United States ; and this year an intelligent farmer 

 of Illinois assured me that he did not believe that the land harvested 

 in that State this season had yielded more than an average of eight 

 bushels to the acre; much was cut and then abandoned as not worth 

 threshing, and much was abandoned as not worth cutting. As to Indian 

 corn, and indeed, most other crops, the case has not been much better. 

 For the last four years I do not believe the ground planted with corn 

 in Illinois has produced an average of twenty bushels to the acre. 



Lincoln admits too much for the sake of argument, however, 

 when he says : 



Unquestionably it will take more labor to produce fifty bushels from 

 an acre than it will to produce ten bushels from the same acre ; but will 

 it take more labor to produce fifty bushels from one acre than from 

 five? Unquestionably thorough cultivation will require more labor to 

 the acre ; but will it require more to the bushel ? 



Recent experiments have proved that less labor, rather than 

 more, may produce the larger crop. Goethe's proverb, Nichts 

 ist schrecklicher als tdtige Unwissenheit, " Nothing is more ter- 

 rible than active ignorance," applies with unusual force to the 

 delicate task of raising a plant best. 



The most laborious and expensive factor in growing a field 

 of corn has been "thorough cultivation." After this had been 



1 Abraham Lincoln, Complete Works, Vol. I, p. 577. 



