144 THE FARMER OF TO-MORROW 



sight, the problem narrows down to one of 

 efficiency intensive methods. It is with one 

 phase of this movement that we have to do 

 in this chapter. 



We have heard a great deal during the last 

 decade or two of the wonderful productive- 

 ness of the older farm lands of western Eu- 

 rope. They are producing two and sometimes 

 three times as much food to the acre as our 

 virgin soil. 



Is it merely a question of method, of more 

 intelligence, that the farmer of Holland is able 

 to produce 50 bushels of wheat when the far- 

 mer of the Dakotas rarely produces about 12 

 bushels unless the heavens are especially 

 smiling? 



The wheat average for Great Britain is 

 above 32 bushels an acre. The bulk of our 

 immigration previous to the Civil War and 

 a goodly proportion of it for a considerable 

 period thereafter was from the British Isles. 

 The immigrants were sons of the soil, had 

 learned farming as an industry in all its 

 branches. England, terrorized by the possi- 

 bility of a Napoleonic invasion at the begin- 

 ning of the century, undertook to attain self- 

 sufficiency in the matter of food, and in an- 



