156 THE POSSIBILITIES 



recommended by both the Iowa Agricultural 

 Institute and the numerous local agricultural 

 papers ; while at the agricultural competitions 

 the highest rewards are given, not for extensive 

 farming, but for high crops on small areas. 

 Thus, at a recent competition in which hundreds 

 of farmers took part, the first ten prizes were 

 awarded to ten farmers who had grown, on three 

 acres each, from 262 to 346| bushels of Indian 

 corn, in other words from 87 to 115 bushds to 

 the acre. This shows where the ambition of the 

 Iowa farmer goes. In Minnesota, prizes were 

 given already for crops of 300 to 1,120 bushels 

 of potatoes to the acre that is, from eight and 

 a quarter to thirty-one tons to the acre while 

 the average potato crop in Great Britain is 

 only six tons. 



At the same time market-gardening is im- 

 mensely extending in America. In the market- 

 gardens of Florida we see such crops as 445 to 

 600 bushels of onions per acre, 400 bushels of 

 tomatoes, 700 bushels of sweet potatoes, which 

 testify to a high development of culture. As to 

 the " truck farms " (market-gardening for ex- 

 port by steamer and rail), they covered, in 1892, 

 400,000 acres, and the fruit farms in the suburbs 

 of Norfolk, in Virginia, were described by Prof. 

 Ch. Baltet * as real models of that sort of cul- 



* L' Horticulture dans les cinq Parties du Monde. Paris, 1895. 



