164 THE POSSIBILITIES 



the present requirement is at least thirty-three 

 bushels, while in the best soils the crop is good 

 only when it yields from forty-three to forty- 

 eight bushels, and occasionally the produce is 

 as much as fifty-five bushels to the acre. * 

 There are whole countries Hesse, for example 

 which are satisfied only when the average 

 crop attains thirty-seven bushels, or Denmark, 

 where the average crop (1908-1910) is forty-one 

 bushels per acre (forty-four bushels in 1910).f 

 As to the experimental farms of Central France, 

 they produce from year to year, over large areas, 

 forty-one bushels to the acre ; and a number 

 of farms in Northern France regularly yield, 

 year after year, from fifty-five to sixty-eight 

 bushels to the acre. Occasionally even so much 

 as eighty bushels have been obtained upon 

 limited areas under special care.J In fact, 

 Prof. Grandeau considers it proved that by 

 combining a series of such operations as the 

 selection of seeds, sowing in rows, and proper 

 manuring, the crops can be largely increased 



* Grandeau, Etudes agronomiques, 2? serie. Paris, 1888. 



f Although 36 per cent, of the cultivable area is under 

 cereals, there were in Denmark, in 1910, 2,253,980 head of 

 cattle, as against 1,238,900 in 1871, and 1,470,100 in 1882. 



J Risler, Physiologic et Culture du BU. Paris, 1886. Taking 

 the whole of the wheat crop in France, we see that the following 

 progress has been realised. In 1872-1881 the average crop was 

 16 bushels per acre. In 1882-1890 it attained 17 T % bushels 

 per acre. Increase by 14 per cent, in ten years (Prof. C. V. 

 Garola, Les Cer&Ues, p. 



