THE FARMER IN THE COMING CHANGE. 



23 



tices of the Board of Trade gambler in farm products have been largely contributory, the 

 primary and potent cause lies deep down in that desire of the race to own a home and to 

 Bit, each man, under his own vine and fig tree which has found such wide scope for its 

 realization on the public domain, where all were welcome to a farm without money or 

 price; and this, in the absence of a retarding forest growth, resulted in an increase of 112 

 percent, in the cultivated area of the United States during the fourteen years ending 

 with 188.5, while population increased but 44 jier cent. 



During the last half decade, however, a radical and far-reaching change has obtained 

 — obtained because the raw material from which farms are made has been practically ex- 

 hausted—and while population continues to increase in nearly as great a ratio as prior to 

 1885, or 12..5 per cent., the cultivated area increased but seven per cent., and the rate of 

 the acreage increase is yearly and progressively lessening, one consequence being that the 

 quantity of land employed in the production of food for exportation has diminislied from 

 21,000,000 acres in 1885 to 10,000,000 acres in 1891, and continuing to diminish at the same 

 rate will, by 1895, have wholly been absorbed by the requirements of our added population. 



The following table shows the rapidity of agricultural development and the pro- 

 gressively decreasing rate at which additions are being made to the cultivated area and 

 indicates the early coming of that time when the American, and especially western, 

 farmer will be the most prosperous member of the community: 



EXHIBIT SHOWING INCREASE OF CULTIVATED AREA IN THE UNITED STATES AND THE 



RATES PER CENT. OF INCREASE. 



1871 



Cultivated Area in Staple, 



Crops, Acres [ 93,000,000 



Increase of Cultivated Area 



in Each Period Acres ' 



Rate per cent, of Increase 



in Each Period. 



Increase of Cultivated Area 



Each Year during Each 



Period, Acres 1 



Yearly Rate per cent, of In-j 



crease during Each Per'dl 



1875 



123,000,000 



30,000,000 



32.2 



7,500,000 

 8.1 



1880 



165 000,000 



42,000,000 



34.1 



8,240,000 

 6.8 



1885 



197 000,000 



32,000,000 



19.4 



6,400,000 

 3.9 



1890 



211,000,000 



14,000,000 



7.1 



2,800.000 

 1.4 



The preceding table shows that during the fourteen year period ending with 1885 

 the increase in cultivated acres was not less than 112 per cent, as against an increase in 

 population of 44 per cent. This phenomenal increase was not only sufficient to meet the 

 requirements of the great additions made to our own population, but also quite stiffieien^ 

 to meet the additions made to the European populations and still leave a surplus to be 

 stored as reserves, which have been drawn upon in later years when current production 

 has been less than curreut needs. Now, however, our additions to the area under culti- 

 vation are less than equal to half our added needs 



Concurrently with the addition of so many new farms in the United States the 

 Indian government abrogated the export duty upon wheat and Indian exports that ag- 

 gregated but 464,000 bushels in 1871 rose, in 1S87, to 41,500,000 bushels without, howeveri 

 any increase of the Indian W'lieat area; indeed the area sown to wheat at the close of the 

 ninth decade was a million acres less than in 1870, the augmented exports being very 

 largely due to the increasing and inconceivable poverty of the Indian cultivator who has 

 been ol)liged to sell an ever increasing proportion of his crop — as the price fell — to paj' the 

 constantly augmenting land (rent) tax, although a population increasing three times as 

 fast as the cultivated acreage actually required this food for home consumption. 



The result of such a disproportionate increase of population and cultivated acreage 

 in the United States and the compulsory exportation of wheat by the starving Indian 

 ryots is seen in the fact that whereas, during the five years ending with 1875 the average 

 price (in gold) of Eugli-h grown wheat in the markets of Great Britain was $1.64 per 

 bushel, it was but 95 cents during the five years ending with 1890. In other w<irds wheat 

 — Tvhio'.i is the key to the agricultural situation — during this fifteen years shrank in 



