150 THE POSSIBILITIES 



machinery was so perfected that in this way 

 300 days of one man's labour produced from 

 200 to 300 quarters of wheat ; in other words 

 the area of land being of no account every man 

 produced in one day his yearly bread food (eight 

 and a half bushels of wheat) ; and taking into 

 account all subsequent labour, it was calculated 

 that the work of 300 men in one single day deliv- 

 ered to the consumer at Chicago the flour that is 

 required for the yearly food of 250 persons. 

 Twelve hours and a half of work are thus required 

 in Chicago to supply one man with his yearly 

 provision of wheat-flour. 



Under the special conditions offered in the 

 Far West this certainly was an appropriate 

 method for increasing all of a sudden the wheat 

 supplies of mankind. It answered its purpose 

 when large territories of unoccupied land were 

 opened to enterprise. But it could not answer 

 for ever. Under such a system of culture the 

 soil was soon exhausted, the crop declined, and 

 intensive agriculture (which aims at high crops on 

 a limited area) had soon to be resorted to. Such 

 was the case in Iowa in the year 1878. Up till 

 then, Iowa was an emporium for wheat-growing 

 on the lines just indicated. But the soil was 

 already exhausted, and when a disease came the 

 wheat plants had no force to resist it. In a few 

 weeks nearly all the wheat crop, which was ex- 



