22 AGRICULTUEE AND EURAL-LIFE DAY. 



an organization known as the Farmers' Union. These two organiza- 

 tions were united in 1887 with the name of Farmers' Alliance and 

 Cooperative Union of America. Another organization known as 

 the Agricultural Wheel, which was effected in Arkansas, united with 

 the Alliance in 1889. These and other State orders met at Ocala, 

 Fla., in 1890 and adopted a platform. It is said that all these vari- 

 ous branches of the Farmers' Alliance had a membership of over 

 5,000,000. During the depression of business from 1893 to 1900 the 

 Farmers' Alliance became involved in politics and split into factions, 

 losing some of the influences that come from united effort. The 

 Farmers' Union of to-day, however, is the successor of the Farmers' 

 Alliance, and it is one of the most powerful organizations in the 

 country. 



Through these organizations, the farmers have influenced public- 

 school legislation; they were helpful in creating a national Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, and in establishing agricultural colleges and 

 experiment stations; they have lowered prices in agricultural ma- 

 chinery and kept up prices on agi'icultural products; they have im- 

 proved farming by introducing better methods of planting, tilling, 

 and harvesting; and they are now especially interested in securing 

 credit on the same terms as the manufacturers. 



WONDERS OF A SINGLE ACRE. 



A new light is shed on our agricultural productiveness by figuring 

 the unconsidered details of plant life that spring from a single acre 

 of ground. A bushel of wheat contains an average of 720,000 ker- 

 nels ; and so, if the yield of an acre is 30 bushels, the total number of 

 grains is well toward 22,000,000. The number of stalks per acre is 

 35,000. If each stalk is only 3 feet tall — and this is a dwarfish stature, 

 indeed — the total is nearly 200 miles. This does not include the miles 

 of roots and leaves. 



A ton of average well-dried timothy hay may contain upward of 

 1,500,000 separate stalks, and an acre may yield 4 tons. A head of 

 timothy of average length will bear from 400 to 500 flowers. Thus 

 the number of timothy blossoms in a good acre is just about double 

 the number of human beings in the whole world. An acre of apple 

 trees in full bearing may yield 100,000 good apples; an acre of 

 tomatoes, 120,000 tomatoes, of which each one contains 1,200 seeds. 



Thus the man who can increase the yield of even a single acre of 

 land by so much as 5 per cent will ultimately bring more living in- 

 dividuals into the world than both he and all his posterity can ever 

 take out of it. 



