538 APPENDIX 



^ 



largest states, produces more than seven times the number 

 of bushels of potatoes that are produced in all the states. 



"Experimental farms should be established in every county 

 of every state, where the most modern methods of fertiliza- 

 tion and cultivation and the result of such methods can be 

 demonstrated, and where every farmer in the county can 

 see exactly how it is done, instead of being told in books or 

 lectures how it can be done. 



"The marvelous extension and development of railroads 

 through the Middle West during the ten years following the 

 close of the Civil War, opening up and making easily ac- 

 cessible empires of this rich land, marvelously stimulated 

 emigration; and each new railroad, each extension of exist- 

 ing railroads, was followed by the location of thousands of 

 settlers and the opening up and cultivation of millions of 

 acres of new land. 



"The result that followed was inevitable. The products 

 of the nation's farms soon so far exceeded the demand for 

 them that prices fell far below the bare cost of production. 



"I have seen as good corn as the states of Iowa, Kansas, 

 and Nebraska ever grew sell for ten to twelve cents per 

 bushel, and it was a drug on the market at that price. I have 

 seen this corn burned for fuel on the farm, because it was 

 cheaper than wood or coal. 



"Is it strange that such conditions resulted in a ruinous 

 collapse in farm values in Pennsylvania, New York, and New 

 England, or that they begot methods or habits of unthrift 

 and improvidence in the cultivation of the soil in the West? 



"These conditions prevailed not only in our own country 

 but abroad. Railroads were being built in Russia, Australia, 

 Argentina, India, and New Zealand, and cheap land with its 

 cheap product competed in every market on the globe. 



"Fifty-one years ago, in an address delivered before the 

 Wisconsin Agricultural Society, Abraham Lincoln said: 



"*My first suggestion is an inquiry as to the eflFect of greater thorough- 

 ness in all departments of agriculture than now prevails in the Northwest; 

 perhaps, I might say, in America. 



"'What would be the effect upon the farming interests to push the 

 soil up to something near its full capacity? Unquestionably, it will take 

 more labor to produce fifty bushels from one 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 tjie 

 lipxe; but will it require more to the buahel? 



