DIVISION AND SPECIALIZATION 145 



other fifty years had doubled the productivity 

 of her acres. This was reflected in the indi- 

 vidual, the immigrant who came to America 

 and took up his quarter-section of land on the 

 western prairies. Here he found new tools, a 

 soil that had never known the plow. It was 

 easily worked, required a minimum of labor, 

 and the weeds that had become acclimated to 

 the unbroken prairie disappeared with culti- 

 vation and did not reappear for another gen- 

 eration. 



Yet he did not produce 32 bushels of wheat. 

 Nor 20, nor yet 15, except in bountiful years. 



Then came the Germans, the French, the 

 Dutch, and the Scandinavians. The latter 

 must surely know efficiency in farming, since 

 at home a scant eight per cent, of their land 

 is arable. 



These are our farmers, these immigrants 

 and their sons and their grandsons. They are 

 for the most part originally from the west of 

 Europe, where pressure of population has de- 

 nied the working man meat for many years. 

 Germany to-day consumes only 25 pounds of 

 meat per capita half a pound a week. 



We introduced machinery such as the Eu- 

 ropean was not to know for decades. In fact, 



