matter of common knowledge and is accessible to 

 all. For the last ten years the average wheat yield 

 in the United States was 14.1 bushels, w^hile in 

 Germany it was 28.7 and in the United Kingdom 

 32.6. This is a measure of our general agriculture. 

 The cattle other than milch cows on farms in the 

 United States are over 4,000,000 fewer than they 

 were three years ago. The number of hogs declined 

 7,000,000 in the last three years and is less than it 

 was twenty years ago. The increase in total value 

 of food products is due to a great extent to higher 

 prices. This failure to conserve soil fertility and 

 maintain the agricultural interest is expressed in 

 recent changes in our foreign trade. These are more 

 than mere balance sheets; since, as you know, varia- 

 tions in international trade balances may produce 

 wide-reaching effects upon all industry. 



While our totals foreign trade last year was only 

 a little less than the high record made in 1907, the 

 distribution of it was vastly different. For the 

 last fiscal year our imports were nearly $246,000,000 

 in excess of those for the same period in 1909, and 

 $363,000,000 above those of 1908. Our exports were 

 more by $82,000,000 only than in 1909, and were 

 nearly $116,000,000 less than in 1908. In 1908 the 

 excess of exports over imports was $666,000,000; by 

 1910 it had fallen to $187,000,000. We are buying 

 more lavishly and selling less because there is less 

 that we can spare. A glance at the following table 

 of our exports for the last fi\c years in three great 

 schedules dependent directly upon the soil tells the 

 whole story: 



Meat and Dairy Cattle, Sheefi 

 Breadstuffs Products and Hoga 



1906 1186.468.901 ^210.990.065 $43,516,258 



1907 184.120,702 202.392.508 35,617,074 



1908 215.260,588 192,802,708 30.235.621 



1909 159,929,221 166,521,949 18,556,73« 



1910 133.191,330 130,632,783 12,456,10f 



9 



