90 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



Even at a glance the increase in the value of farm prod- 

 ucts is surprising. When examined in comparison with 

 the figures given a moment ago, this increase is truly re- 

 markable. Thus, while the absolute acreage of improved 

 farm land in the United States has increased 15 per cent 

 during the last decade, the annual value of farm products 

 has increased 92 per cent. That is the record for the United 

 States at large. In the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 

 with 22 per cent Jess land under cultivation, the annual 

 value of farm products has been increased 51 per cent. 

 That looks like an improvement in agriculture, does it not? 

 I doubt if any other industry in the world can show a simi- 

 lar advance. 



These figures show, furthermore, that, while there may 

 be some tendency in certain sections toward the develop- 

 ment of agriculture along lines of more extensi^'e farming, 

 the great forward movement of the time is most emphati- 

 cally in the direction of more intensive farming. 



The Ratio of Productiveness. 

 The efficiency of intensive agriculture may be shown on 

 another side by another draft of statistics from the twelfth 

 census. It has been necessary to compute the following 

 figures from data given in the census report, and, since 

 averages are used in the computations, the results may not 

 be accurate to a cent. The general principle is so emphati- 

 call}^ brought out, however, that the difference of a few 

 cents here or there is not material. The following table 

 shows the rate- of gross income to each acre of farm land for 



farms of diflerent sizes. 

 United States. 



The figures are for the entire 



