Maech 28, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



473 



/ Buahela 



I Census = 16,610,730 

 1899-{ 



(_ Ag.Dept 



(Census 

 1909 J 



(^Ag.Dept = 37,633,000 



WEST VIROIHIA OORH 



61 i EiaggsratloD 



f Census = 67,307,390 

 1899^ 



\_Ag.Dept = 59,997,760 



fCeneus = 67,682,489 ■ 

 1909 <^ 



(^Ag.Dept = 78,650,000 : 



TENNESSEE CORK 



16 i Exaggaratlon 



f Census = 73,974,833 - I 

 1899^ 



(_Ag.Dept = 55,393,687 = | 



/■ Census =83,383,034 = 1 

 1909 •( 



LAg.Dept= 103,473,000 =| 



KEHTUCKY COBH 



34 j, Kxaggsration 



fCeneus = 

 1899 { 



(.Ag.Dept « 



109,907,350 

 81,151,398 



TEXAS CORN 



fcensua = 75,498,695 ■• 

 1909 < 



ljg.Dept= 132,350,000 i 



63 i faaggaration 



has been written. It begins with a yearly farm 

 production worth $4,000,000,000 and ends with 

 $9,532,000,000. . . . During the past 16 years the 

 fanner has steadily increased his wealth produc- 

 tion year by year, with the exception of 1911. . . . 

 Beginnings have been made in a production per 

 acre increasing faster than the natural increase 

 of population. 



In the issue of February, 1913. of the Crop 

 Reporter, " published by authority of the sec- 

 retary of agriculture," occurs the following: 



Statements have been made recently by some 

 writers and lecturers, to the effect that the yield 

 per acre of crops in the United States is dimin- 

 ishing from year to year. A study of crop yields 

 indicates that there was such a tendency toward 

 lower yields during the seventies and eighties, but 

 during the last 20 years the tendency has been 

 the reverse. ... In order to show this trend 

 graphically, eight charts are published in this 

 issue of the Crop Beporter which show the yearly 

 change and the average change of yield per acre 

 of eight important crops. In these charts the 

 downward tendency until about 1890, and since 

 then the upward trend, is strikingly shown. The 

 recent tendency toward enlarged production per 

 acre is general throughout the United States. 



By referring to the Crop Reporter for Jan- 

 uary, 1911, we find a similar statement: 



That the final stage of better agriculture and 



increased production has been reached in many 

 states for a varying number of crops, and that 

 production per acre is not only beginning to 

 exceed the normal increase of population, but 

 really to exceed the actual increase. . . . 



The potentiality of agricultural production as a 

 national achievement suiScient for growth of pop- 

 ulation has been so numerously and so thoroughly 

 demonstrated as to be now beyond intelligent 

 question. The Farmers' Cooperative Demonstra- 

 tion Work, now carried on in 12 cotton states, 

 employs 375 traveling agents and has many thou- 

 sands of demonstrating farms. It is proving by 

 results on thousands of farms that preparation of 

 the soil so as to make the best seed bed adds 100 

 per cent, to the average crop on similar lands 

 with an average preparation in the old way; that 

 the planting of the best seed makes a gain of 50 

 per cent.; and that shallow, frequent cultivation 

 produces an increase of another 50 per cent., 

 making a total gain of 200 per cent., or a crop 

 three times the average crop. 



It will be noted that all of this enormous in- 

 crease is secured with no suggestion of soil 

 enrichment, in strict harmony with the errone- 

 ous teachings' of the Department's Bureau of 

 Soils : 



- See Bureau of Soils Bulletin, No. 55, pp. 66, 

 79, 80; or Science, November 8, 1912, p. 621. 



