32 THE BUSINESS OF FAEMING 



ing the past ten years have not all our crops been 

 consumed? And yet many of our people have 

 not had a full dinner pail or a loaf of bread upon 

 their dining table, and have gone to bed night 

 after night suffering the pangs of hunger. 



Have we not had for years a mighty agitation 

 as to the "high cost of living "1 An agitation 

 no doubt solely responsible for the concep- 

 tion and birth of a new and powerful political 

 party, and for a mighty political party with a 

 proud history to go down in humiliating defeat, 

 if not to its death. Yet after all, has not the 

 "high cost of living" been brought about by the 

 high appreciation of the products of the soil? 



Our nation is growing at a tremendous rate. 

 A million of foreigners a year are coming to its 

 shores, mingling with its people, and yet, but lit- 

 tle of its soil capable of being cultivated is un- 

 reclaimed. We have a hundred million of people 

 to feed and less than one-half of them are pro- 

 ducers of food. If, then, for the past ten years 

 we have produced crops showing a general 

 average nearly equal to the average of this, our 

 most prosperous year agriculturally, and those 

 crops have been consumed at high prices, which 

 always is indicative of short supplies, how can 

 we continue to feed our people enough, and yet 

 feed the people coming to our land like as a mul- 

 titude? 



But, really, is our soil condition so serious? 

 Are we facing a soil exhaustion crisis? Has the 

 business of farming been so neglected? To an- 

 swer these questions we have but to point to the 

 fact that in the past ten years our population has 



