90 THE THIRD POWER 



freight is the same on the cheap as on the dear 

 bushel, it is evident that a larger proportion of the 

 price goes to the railroad in the former than in the 

 latter case, to the reduction of the farmer's profit. 

 So the question is much more complex than it seems 

 to be on its face. 



Suppose by the application of improved methods 

 the average of wheat per acre could be raised from 

 twelve to thirty bushels, and this is exactly what a 

 professor of the Indiana Agricultural Experiment 

 Station said the farmers could and should do, by 

 coming to them and learning how. This on the same 

 acreage as now would mean a yield of more than 

 2,000,000,000 bushels instead of 700,000,000. Un- 

 der present conditions the effect on price would be 

 most depressing. No one can say how far the price 

 would fall, but it is certain that the farmer would 

 get less profit for the large crop than he now gets, 

 even at the present moderate price, for the smaller 

 one. While it is not possible to increase any of our 

 crops so enormously as in this illustration, it will 

 serve to show the folly of the farmers' institutions, 

 teaching how to raise large crops without the ability 

 to put profitable prices on them. Better devote their 

 efforts to teaching them how to raise less ; as under 

 present systems, if each farm would raise uniformly 

 less, so as to always make a hungry market, our 

 farmers would revel in prosperity. Better yet would 

 be to join in the educational work and teach them 



