THE CRISIS IN AGRICULTURE 19 



deteriorated because of the inclusion of lower 

 grade land in the western plains and mountain 

 counties. 



From another point of view, the change is 

 emphasized even more strongly. In 1880 7Q.5 

 per cent of the population of the country was 

 rural, while in 1920 53.7 per cent w^as rural. 

 The number actually on farms was not even 

 this large, since the latter census included vil- 

 lages and towns of less than 2,500 inhabitants 

 of which there were a large number. The farm 

 population in 1920 was roughly about one-third 

 of the entire population of the country. 



For fifty years the momentum of development 

 was in agriculture ; the subduing of new and fer- 

 tile land by a constant increase of immigrated 

 settlers had been keeping production on an 

 increase. But more recently this stream of new 

 workers had been passing into industries and 

 the growth of agriculture had been occurring 

 through the improved efficiency of the fanner, 

 due to the increased use of machinery and more 

 scientific practices in farming. But both scien- 

 tists and economists know the limitations of 

 these factors in improvement, and the student of 

 w^orld history was beginning to issue warnings 

 of the impending decline of agriculture, such 



