CHAPTER VII 



FARM ACCOUNTS AND DEMONSTRATION 



FARMS 



IN a preceding chapter sufficient evidence has been 

 produced to show that arable land produces more 

 food per acre than grass land ; and all the evidence 

 also goes to show that our land, both arable and grass, 

 should produce more than it does. But we need informa- 

 tion and data which can come only from carefully kept 

 accounts ; we must know the financial results of the 

 application of new scientific methods to the land on a 

 commercial scale. 



All increase in production is due to the application of 

 science to the land. In the thirteenth century the yield 

 of wheat in England was only about 5 bushels to the 

 acre ; this yield has been gradually increased until it 

 now stands at an average of 31 bushels per acre. 



The first improvements were due to the learning by 

 practical farmers of how better to perform the processes 

 of cultivation. Then there is the science of the seedsman, 

 who studies varieties of seeds, and makes improvement 

 by selection and the actual breeding of new varieties ; 

 and finally there is the science of the highly trained man 

 who tells the agriculturist what chemicals to use. We 

 have by no means yet reached the limits of what science 

 can do for agriculture. For this reason exact data are 

 needed to show the results, on a commercial scale, of 



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