THE FARMER OF YESTERDAY 31 



costs money; but they must be very careful 

 or they will upset the balance. The margin 

 is slight. A few years ago potato growers in 

 Maine became so efficient, so intelligent, that 

 they were forced to sell out at eleven cents a 

 bushel. 



"If the farmers of the United States were 

 to produce as much, acre for acre, to-day, 

 as the farmers of Belgium," said Professor 

 Milton Whitney, of the Bureau of Soils, re- 

 cently, "the world would face the greatest 

 panic in its history." 



Then what is wrong with Jeremiah? 



Is the price of land too high? 



Is the price of food too low? 



The trouble with Jeremiah is that he is ahead 

 of his times. He came too late for the old 

 order of things. He is too early for the new 

 order. 



Jeremiah tried to compete free-handed, on 

 improved acres, with a subsidized industry 

 with an industry that has grown up to a capi- 

 talization of fifty billion dollars, and hasn't 

 found its feet yet. 



Seventy per cent, of his six and a half mil- 

 lion competitors can afford to ignore land as 

 representing capital. They got it for nothing 



