LINE OF LEAST RESISTANCE 41 



population; and from 1879 onward until 1896 

 (the year of the lowest food prices in the entire 

 cycle) the farmers of the west carried over- 



120 

 115 

 110 



105 

 100 

 95 

 90 

 85 

 80 

 75 



ffet&i'lm Production per Acre 

 " " Cctp/fa 



^- vl> co O 



CO CO CO 



CO CO OO CO CO CO CO 



U. 8. Crop Reporter, Dec. 1911. 



Chart showing relative production per acre and per capita 

 in the United States of 10 crops (wheat, corn, oats, barley, 

 buckwheat, rye, potatoes, hay, tobacco, and cotton) combined. 

 100 represents the average for the 43 years, 1833-1908. 



production to a point where even the world 

 market could not absorb the surplus. It was 

 during this period that old Jeremiah, the pio- 

 neer, came back from the land because there 

 was no one so poor as the farmer. It was dur- 

 ing the later part of this same period that our 

 present-day trans-continental trunk-lines were 

 reconstructed out of the receiverships follow- 

 ing two decades of depression. In the latter 

 part of the 'nineties hunger again caught up. 



