THE FARMER OF YESTERDAY 21 



one. Machinery expands acreage. It does 

 not increase productivity. The only additional 

 labor Jeremiah expends to-day over what his 

 grandfather expended is in fighting weeds, 

 insects, and fungous diseases. These three 

 scourges of elementary agriculture were driven 

 from their happy hunting-grounds by the 

 plow, and they have turned on their despoiler, 

 subdivided their species into highly specialized 

 organizations, and are thriving on civilized 

 fare. 



So Jeremiah is farming at the same rate 

 to-day that he was fifty years ago one hun- 

 dred years ago. In fact, he is farming at the 

 same rate as the sixteenth-century yokel who 

 plowed with a crooked stick instead of a gas- 

 oline tractor. This is amply proved by many 

 records. The burghers of Schmatzfeld, Ger- 

 many, produced an average of 12.5 bushels of 

 wheat to the acre in the period from 1552 to 

 1557. Minnesota, a State which grows more 

 wheat than the entire country east of the Al- 

 leghanies and south of the Ohio River, has 

 averaged 12.4 bushels for fifty years. 



The Weather Man has been (lodging jokes 

 patiently for more than forty years, amassing 

 enough evidence to take the responsibility. He 



