658 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXI. No. 800 



Why this exportation? Because the 

 present owners of American land learned 

 only the art of agriculture and were never 

 taught the science of farming; and it may 

 well be repeated that the responsibility 

 rests not with the farmer, but with the 

 statesman and the educator. 



Note well the following facts : 



During the past dozen years the average 

 acreage in corn and wheat in the United 

 States has been increased by 30 per cent.; 

 but notwithstanding the enormous in- 

 creased production thus made possible, we 

 have been obliged to decrease our average 

 exportation of corn and wheat from nearly 

 one fourth to only one tenth of our total 

 production ; and at the same time the aver- 

 age price of these great basic food mater- 

 ials has increased by 52 per cent., corre- 

 sponding approximately to the increase in 

 the value of land in the gTeat corn and 

 wheat states, and to the consequent and 

 inevitable general advance in the cost of 

 living. 



You will remember that the population 

 of the United States has increased 100 per 

 cent, in thirty years, and without doubt 

 will number more than 90 millions in 1910 ; 

 but, notwithstanding the great areas of 

 rich virgin lands brought under cultiva- 

 tion in the west and northwest, and not- 

 withstanding the abandonment of great 

 areas of depleted soil in the east and 

 southeast, during the last forty years the 

 average yield per acre of these two great 

 grain crops has not even been maintained 

 according to the twenty-year averages of 

 the crop statistics of the federal government 

 for the forty years from 1866 to 1905, as 

 reported in the 1908 year book of the 

 United States Department of Agriculture. 

 Shorter periods might be selected which 

 would give apparent indications of a dif- 

 ferent tendency, but less than twenty-year 

 averages are not trustworthy for ascertain- 



ing the average yield per acre; and these 

 two twenty-year averages show that the 

 decrease in yield of corn has exceeded the 

 slight increase in yield of wheat, much of 

 which, it should be remembered, is now 

 grown on land less than forty years under 

 cultivation. And this statement holds not 

 only for the entire United States, but also 

 for the great north central grain belt, in- 

 cluding Ohio, Kansas, North Dakota and 

 the ten other states lying within that tri- 

 angle. 



Thus, in this boasted "granary of the 

 world," the records of forty years show 

 that the average yield of wheat has in- 

 creased one half bushel per acre, while the 

 average yield of corn has decreased two 

 bushels per acre. 



Why should the average yield of corn in 

 the United States be only 25 bushels per 

 acre and the average yield in Illinois be 

 only 35 bushels per acre, when the aver- 

 age yield upon the farm of the University 

 of Illinois, on normal soil under practical, 

 profitable and permanent scientific sys- 

 tems of farming, is 87 bushels per acre? 



There are at least four factors involved 

 in the solution of the problem of maintain- 

 ing prosperity, civilization and universal 

 education in this country. These four fac- 

 tors may be classified as exploitational, 

 scientific, legal and economic. 



1. Further exploitation of our remain- 

 ing virgin soils, as by irrigation and drain- 

 age, neither of which is of large signifi- 

 cance in comparison with the magnitude of 

 our present agricultural development. 



2. The restoration, by practical scientific 

 methods, of depleted lands and large in- 

 crease in productive power of practically 

 all lands now under cultivation. This is 

 the only great positive factor. 



3. The legal control of increase in popu- 

 lation by the enactment and enforcement 

 of suitable laws. 



