8 PRACTICAL, CORN CULTURE 
made during the next ten years. We believe present 
farm prices are here to stay, unless, perchance, they go 
higher. 
Goop Prices ror FArmM Crops 
The last census shows that the population of the United 
States increases over twenty per cent every decade. This 
increase in population has been much greater than the in- 
crease in the available supply of land. The demand for farm 
crops has increased faster than the supply, with the result 
that farm crops and farm lands continue to bring higher 
prices. This is especially true of corn and corn land. 
At least eighty per cent of the corn land in the corn belt 
proper is now under cultivation. If, then, we are to grow 
more corn in the future, it will be necessary to grow more 
bushels to the acre. More bushels mean better farming, and 
better farming requires not only more thorough and intelli- 
gent culture but the building up of the land and more care- 
ful selection of seed. 
While we are confronted by depleted soils and the stern 
necessity of better farming, we are cheered by the fact that 
the resulting higher prices are making better farming exceed- 
ingly profitable. Twenty years ago the farmer was excusable 
for following bonanza methods (we have excused ourselves) 
with corn selling at fourteen cents per bushel. 
From 1890 to 1895 it was necessary for the corn belt 
farmers to economize in every possible way in order to meet 
necessary expenses, to say nothing of buying manure spreaders 
and turning under leguminous crops. Automobiles did not 
exist, and if they had existed, the farmer could not afford 
to own one. During this period, careful farmers did well to 
play even; while with the majority farming was a losing 
game. Crops were often sold at a price which brought the 
farmer less than their value as a fertilizer. 
