LAND AS A BASIS OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION 91 



The future will be very different from the past with regard 

 to the expansion of the area of farm land. In 1850 the land area 

 of the country was 1,884,375,680 acres, but only 15.6 per cent 

 of it was in farms, only 6 per cent was improved farm land, and 

 there were only 1,449,073 farms. In 1910 the total land area 

 of the country was 1,903,289,600 acres, 42.6 per cent of which 

 was in farms, 25.1 per cent of which was improved land, and 

 there were 6,361,502 farms. The best farm land of the United 

 States was brought into cultivation during the sixty years 

 from 1850 to 1910. Prairie land and the development of the 

 railway system made this the period of the most rapid develop- 

 ment of farms in the history of this country. A study of the 

 soil, climate, and topography convinces one that the expansion 

 of the agricultural area will proceed much slower in the future 

 than it has in the past. In fact the decade from 1900 to 1910 

 showed a great decline in the rate of expansion. Between 

 1890 and 1900 the farm area expanded more than 215,000,000 

 acres, while between 1900 and 1910 the farm area expanded only 

 about 40,000,000 acres, though the increase in population was 

 greater in the latter decade than in the former. 



Quality of the new land. During the past sixty years, when 

 the area of farm land was increased, it was not unusual for the 

 new land to be more easily brought under cultivation and more 

 fertile than the land already under cultivation. 



This was true during the period of the development of the 

 prairies of the north central states and the black prairie of 

 Texas. In the future, however, when the demands for agricul- 

 tural products make it desirable to resort to lands not now used 

 for agricultural purposes, the new additions to the supply will 

 either be expensive to bring under cultivation or infertile when 

 brought into use. This means that the new increments of supply 

 will yield less per dollar of expenditure upon them and can for 

 this reason be resorted to with profit only under condition of rising 

 prices for farm products or falling costs for labor and equipment. 



The growth of our population is sure to make increasing 

 demands upon the agricultural resources of the country, a part 

 of which may be met by extending the industry into regions 



