and lard, butter and eggs amounted in 1908 to 

 nearly $89,000,000. Mr. Frederic C. Howe, in a 

 recent article, says: 'The total export trade is 

 approximately $380 for every farm, of which 

 133,000 of the 250,000 are of less than 13>^ acres 

 in extent, the average of all the farms being but 

 43 acres for the entire country. The export busi- 

 ness alone amounts to nine dollars per acre, in 

 addition to the domestic consumption, as well as 

 the support of the farmer himself." One-half the 

 population are depositors in the savings banks, with 

 an average deposit of $154. How have these things 

 been accomplished? 



First, negatively, it has not been done by any ar- 

 tificial means or legislative hocus-pocus. No 

 bounty and no subsidy has any share in the national 

 prosperity. The ruler of the country is the small 

 farmer. He cultivates his acres as we cultivate a 

 garden. He raises everything that belongs to the 

 land. He fertilizes it by using every ounce of ma- 

 terial from his live stock and by purchasing more 

 fertilizers when necessary. There are 42 high 

 schools and 29 agricultural colleges in this little 

 state, with a population less than that of Massa- 

 chusetts in 1900. Whatever else they teach, agri- 

 culture is taught first, last and all the time, to 

 young and old alike. The Dane is a farmer and is 

 proud of it. England and Ireland and Germany 

 are studying his methods today. No people could 

 imitate them with more profit than our own. 



Recent good years have brought the average 

 wheat yield per acre in the United States up to 

 over fourteen bushels. Twice that would be con- 

 sidered poor in Great Britain and an average crop 

 in Germany. Therefore twenty-five bushels per 

 acre is a reasonable possibility for us. Suppose 



