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DRY-FARMING CONGRESS, WICHITA, 1914 



ture and wood lands, etc. In the arid and semiarid sections, as more fully 

 pointed out later, there are large areas capable of cultivation. 



To the productivity of soil per acre there is almost no limit if sufficient 

 labor and sufficient intelligence be applied. It is possible for this country 

 to support many times its present population. It is possible to obtain far 

 larger yields of each particular crop. Moreover, the capacity of the land 

 to support population can be materially increased by readjustment of the 

 proportions of the several crops planted, increasing the acreage of crops 

 with high food yield. It is a familiar fact that western Europe produces 

 far more food per acre than our own country. The yields of the common 

 cereals in countries such as Germany, France, Belgium, England, and Den- 

 mark are approximately double those in America. 



Doubtless more labor must be devoted to agriculture in this country 

 if population continues to expand in the future as it has in the past; it may 

 ultimately be necessary that a larger proportion of the population than 

 at present devote itself to the production of food. The present ten- 

 dency of population to increase far more rapidly in cities than in rural 

 districts can scarcely continue indefinitely. More labor could be got on 

 the farms if the streams of immigration could be diverted from the factories 

 to the fields and if the heavy movement of the native population from 

 country to city could be checked. Some have even suggested that com- 

 pulsory measures be taken to send the immigrants to the farms and keep 

 them there at least for a period of years. 



If we have the right, as most people believe, to exclude immigrants 

 altogether, have we not equally the right to impose conditions upon their 

 entrance? The administration of such a law would be difficult but not 

 impossible. Such a measure need not be advocated for the immediate 

 future but it deserves careful consideration as an ultimate aid in the 

 solution of the food problem. 



A good deal can doubtless be done by information bureaus and other 

 means of making known the opportunities and advantages of the country 

 districts. 



Apart from any such more or less artificial measures there is reason 

 to believe that the shortage of agricultural labor will to some extent work 

 its own cure. The higher prices of farm products resulting from that 

 shortage of labor mean higher profits of farming, greater inducement for 

 the boys to remain on the farm and the possibility of paying higher 

 wages to farm laborers. 



However, the outlook would be discouraging indeed if the only hope 

 for increasing agricultural production lay in using more labor on the farms. 

 Unless constant improvement is made in agricultural methods, each new 

 laborer will produce less than the one before. This is the familiar law 

 of decreasing returns. Perhaps the farmers of western Europe know 

 how to farm better than most American farmers, but the chief explana- 

 tion of their high yields per acre is the large amount of labor expended. 

 After all, the test of success in farming is quite as much production per 



