144 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



wheat. By following the methods above outlined, there should 

 be no ditTicuity in making in the next ten years an inci'ease of ten 

 bushels per acre in the average yield of corn in the great corn 

 growing states, and an equal proportionate increase in the aver- 

 age yield of winter wheat; while it is not difficult under twenti- 

 eth century metliods to add 50 per cent if not indee 1 100 per cent 

 to the yield of our pastures and meadows. 



The breaking up of the great ranges, and the return of 

 nornnl seasons to that portion of the west which has heretofore 

 been called semi-arid, but which investors now hope will be 

 ''like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou 

 goest unto Zoar," will placce upon the farmer in Ihtj great 

 corn and grass states the necessity and duty of growing, to 

 his own great benefit, the meats to feed the hungry nations. 

 The time is coming when we will grow three billion bushels of 

 corn a year, and eix hundred million bushels of winter wheat, and 

 perliaps one billion bushels of oats; and this will all ])e needed and 

 at prices relatively higher than now. The century will not be half 

 gone, in my judgment, perhaps not a quarter, when we will 

 cease to be exporters of crude products and coarse grains, with 

 the exception of the corn required for export to make Scotch 

 wdiiskey and to balance rations for dairy cows in the dairy coun- 

 tries; nor is the time far distant when w^e will cease to ^^xport 

 wheat or oats at anything like present prices. The limit which 

 nature has put upon the area of agricultural land, even taking 

 into account ilie ^possibilities of irrigation, will compel he pro- 

 duction of both meat and grain which the world will demand 

 on farms which are now tilled in some sort of way, but which 

 yield far less than their possible production . 



If it be asked what kind of live stock will feed on : .venlieth 

 century farms, it requires no prophet to answer. The lard hog 

 will be in evidence everywhere in the corn surplus states, and 

 the bacon hog north, south and Avest of these states. The sheep 

 industry \vill thrive on the agricultural lands, not in great herds, 

 but as part of the live stock equipment. There will be a won- 

 derful increase in the numbers and in the capacity of the special 

 dairy cow^s. The development of our great cities, the increasing 



I 



