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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. L. No. 1303 



acre-value of farm products for any of the 

 regional divisions in the United States during 

 the period in question — something more than 

 a generation. The vertical columns show a 

 remarkable harmony of acre-values over the 

 whole United States for the same census year. 

 This fact, coupled with an entire absence of 

 any uniform upward trend of values for the 

 period, either for the regions individually, or 

 for the United States as a whole, clearly 

 demonstrates that the acre-values of Amer- 

 ican farm products for the past generation 

 have been entirely dependent upon accidental 

 years of good crops or good prices or both. 

 The situation is still more strikingly set 

 forth when we compare the percentage in- 

 crease or decrease in improved acreage from 

 one decennial census period to another, with 

 the percentage increase or decrease in the 

 acre-values of agricultural products for the 

 same period, as shown by the following table. 



average net increase for the four decennial 

 periods, as shown in the last two columns. 

 Here however, the fact is demonstrated, that 

 in practically every agricultm-al region in the 

 United States, the average net percentage in- 

 crease in the improved acreage for the forty- 

 year period, has out-distanced and in most 

 cases greatly outstripped the corresponding 

 percentage increase in acre-value of produc- 

 tion upon that acreage. Surveying the fig- 

 ures in more detail, we find that in the most 

 typical agricultural regions of the country — 

 in the South Atlantic and Gulf and in the 

 Central region — the manner in which the 

 percentage increase in acre-value of farm 

 products falls behind the percentage increase 

 in the improved land under cultivation, gives 

 just cause for consideration. When we con- 

 sider that in the Central region, the states of 

 Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, 

 Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee, and West Vir- 



In the table above, the increase and de- 

 crease of both acreage and acre-yield, are 

 placed on a percentage basis, and are there- 

 fore comparable each to each. If, therefore, 

 the acre-yield from one decennial period to 

 another had kept step with the acreage yield, 

 the percentages of increase and decrease 

 would be harmonic. This, however, is not the 

 case. There is little or no correspondence 

 between the two. If any harmony existed, it 

 would certainly be shown in the general 



ginia, comprising the upper Mississippi drain- 

 age basin, certainly pre-eminently the typical 

 agricultural part of America, the average net 

 percentage increase in farm acreage for the 

 entire past generation has outstripped the 

 corresponding net percentage increase in acre- 

 products upon it by 14.15 per cent., it would 

 seem proper for science to give the matter 

 serious consideration and attention. In the 

 Plains region, where improved methods of 

 farming on dry-land areas, and the intro- 



