42 THE FARMER OF TO-MORROW 



with the plow, passed it with the opening of 

 the new century, and since then has maintained 

 the lead. 



A business which produces too little or too 

 much draws its returns accordingly. Every 

 item in lack of balance, on one side or the other 

 of the scale, is reflected in dollars and cents. 

 The dollars and cents return to the American 

 farmer for the last fifty years is in fact a 

 huge curve, touching low ebb at the middle 

 period. Thus the farmer who stayed in busi- 

 ness in the unsettled times following the Civil 

 War received $15.74 for every acre of floor 

 space he devoted to the production of food in 

 1871. But his returns began to fall away with 

 the rush of homesteaders competitors. A 

 line indicating value per acre of farm products 

 tells the story of the decline in fortune of the 

 farmer of those days. It is a ragged line, 

 because in some years the heavens smiled 

 bountifully on the land, doubling its super- 

 abundance; while other years swung the bal- 

 ance in the opposite direction, either because 

 of drought or too much rain. Nevertheless 

 the returns the farmer gleaned from his acres 

 fell steadily. 



In 1886 he had to be content with a return 



