20 THE FARMER OF TO-MORROW 



the other to illustrate the yield per acre, 

 bushels of corn, in the corn-growing states. 

 They fitted the two charts together. Even 

 the two experts were not prepared for the 

 striking result shown. The two charts fitted 

 each other like a dovetail joint! Every varia- 

 tion in rainfall was accompanied by a cor- 

 responding variation in bushels of corn. 



In as recent a period of enlightenment as 

 1901 there was a famine in corn. Solely for 

 the reason that Jupiter Pluvius loafed on his 

 job. He had been expected to produce eleven 

 inches of rain that summer, and he actually 

 furnished only a scant six inches. Don't blame 

 the farmer. Blame the Weather Man. 



Take another instance : During the decade 

 1867-1876, the best yield of corn in Nebraska 

 was 42.2 bushels to the acre in 1869, and the 

 poorest yield was 10 bushels to the acre in 

 1874. The ten-year average was 32.5. Some- 

 where between high and low a whole season's 

 product was lost. Was it the farmer's fault 

 that he received one bushel of corn one year 

 for the same amount of labor that paid him 

 four bushels another year? 



Human ingenuity has constructed intricate 

 machinery to crop ten acres with the ease of 



