28 



SOME SURPLUS PRODUCING STATES. 



clearly shown iQ the foUowiug table, stating the nuin'isr of horses Cittla and swine la 

 tlie United States, and In each of these States, on tlie first of January, 1391, as set forth 

 In the report of the Department of Agriculture for that month: 



While the States named have but 29 per cent, of the population of the United States 

 they have 55 percent, of the acreage in the great food and forage staples, and, having a 

 soil much above the average iu fertility, produce 63 per cent, of the grain, hay and pota- 

 toes of the nation; 47 per cent of the horses; 40 per cent, of the cattle, and 52 per cent, 

 of the swine. 



If hereafter farm products are to rule as high iu price as is implied by the world's 

 deficient acreage, the exhaustion of the available lands and the disproportionate rates at 

 which cultivated acres and population ar.e and have, for years, been increasing then the 

 three preceding tables would indicate that such States will long eujoj' an unexampled 

 prosperity, and that such as have the greatest cultivated acreage per capita — as have, iu 

 the order named, Iowa, Kansas, Neliraska and the Dakotas— would seem to have every 

 assurance, by reason of a surplus proportionately the greatest, of being the exceptionally 

 prosperous parts of the food-producing West. 



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Given a bread-eating popuation— the world's— Increasing at the rate of 14 per cent 

 In ten years and an acreage in grain and potatoes increasing at the rate of 7 per cent., it 

 Is only a question of time when scarcity and high prices will result. 



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As the farmers of the West become prosperous and farm lands advance in value so 

 wVll nrosner all other western interests and western town property enhance in value. 



