24 FARMING MORE PROFITABLE THAN EVER 



agricultural production in order to meet the growing call 

 for supplies at home and abroad. The rapid growth in 

 American cities has created a consumptive demand which 

 is increasing far more rapidly than the output of the 

 farms. The effect of this has been to cut down our ex- 

 port to such an extent that we have come to depend on 

 the cotton crop and manufactured products to maintain 

 the nation's balance of trade. 



The wheat crop of this country is raised on 50,000,000 

 acres and averages 13.7 bushels to the acre, while sev- 

 eral countries of Europe, on thousand-year-old farms, 

 average 26 bushels. We have as good, or better, land, 

 tools, brains, etc., but we are not yet properly employing 

 any of these factors. 



The corn average is only 28 bushels per acre, and yet 

 in some twelve experiments last summer a yield of 100 

 bushels or more was easily secured. 



If the farms of the corn belt were kept clean of weeds 

 there would be a great deal less trouble with insects, is 

 the opinion of Frank I. Mann of Gilman, 111. There are 

 a number of times during the year when there are no 

 crops in condition for the insects to live on, and these 

 times are tided over for them by the growth of weeds 

 where they do not belong. A few of the insects, such as 

 grubs, root lice and corn root-worm, can be controlled by 

 a crop rotation which introduces a year of clover or some 

 such crop upon the roots of which the insects cannot 

 live. An evidence of the possibilities in insect eradica- 

 tion is the Mann farm at Gilman. For a number of 

 years the men from the state entomological department 

 have been examining the Mann fields every year to see if 

 any injurious insects could be found, and except for 

 grasshoppers they have found none. Mr. Mann at- 

 tributes this entirely to the systematic rotation of crops, 

 the keeping out of weeds, and the use of strong seed 

 which produces plants with power of pest resistance. 



