170 THE FARMER OF TO-MORROW 



generations, to be the best adapted for such 

 culture. 



Up to the present time the line representing 

 productiveness of our acres, taken as a whole, 

 has remained practically stationary, subject 

 in the main only to variations in climatic con- 

 ditions, both from year to year and from dec- 

 ade to decade. It has followed the sunshine- 

 and-rain rate of production. Isolate New 

 England, however, and we at once have 

 vizualized a sharp upward tendency. The 

 area devoted to farms in New England, how- 

 ever, is too small to affect the national aver- 

 age; just as the wheat production of western 

 Europe, of which we hear so much in the litera- 

 ture of intensive propaganda, does not sensibly 

 affect the production for Europe as a whole. 

 Europe as a whole produces only about 14 

 bushels to the acre, according to the statistics 

 compiled by Mr. Rutter. And, in addition to 

 specializing her acres, New England is old 

 enough to have developed strains of grain 

 adapted to her acres. Yields of 100 bushels of 

 native flint corn are not uncommon in 

 Connecticut and Massachusetts; and Maine 

 leads the nation in potatoes, with nearly 200 

 bushels per acre, against a national average 



