THE FARMER OF YESTERDAY 19 



He sowed his seed and prayed for rain. The 

 rest was up to the Weather Man. 



Jupiter Pluvius, the arch-manufacturer of 

 aridity and humidity, is the court of last resort. 

 If the heavens are propitious, fat crops; if 

 the heavens turn a cold, sour face to the land, 

 lean crops. Sunshine and rain, fair and foul 

 weather, text-books to the contrary notwith- 

 standing, have been the sole factor affecting 

 the yield of our acres since the American far- 

 mer was in his swaddling-clothes. Weather is 

 the pressure gauge; it determines the revolu- 

 tions per minute, so to speak, of this big ma- 

 chine. If our acres are not producing enough 

 food, put more acres under cultivation. 



We are producing three times as much corn 

 to-day as we did fifty years ago, not because 

 we have increased the efficiency of our plant, 

 but merely because we are plowing three times 

 as many acres. 



Several years ago two weather-wise experts 

 (J. Warren Smith, Section Director of the 

 Weather Bureau at Washington, and Pro- 

 fessor W. D. Gibbs, of the New Hampshire 

 State College) constructed two charts to show 

 the relation between crops and weather. One 

 chart was to illustrate the rainfall in inches; 



