14 BULLETIN 1458, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
carrying a considerably greater.quantity of livestock per hundred 
acres of cultivated land than either Germany, Denmark, or France 
(5, p. 155). 
From the eighties of the last century onward a great change in 
the numbers of livestock was effected in Denmark and to a somewhat 
smaller degree in Germany. ‘The increase in number of animal units 
per hundred acres of cultivated land in Denmark and Germany was 
50 per cent for the former and 29 per cent for the latter up to the 
period immediately preceding the World War. In the same period 
the increase in Great Britain was about 16 per cent. The increase 
in number of livestock per hundred acres of cultivated land in France 
was almost negligible. In referring to the hvestock factor as affect- 
ing productivity and yields per acre, Prothero has described the 
relatively small number of livestock kept on the land in France as 
“the great deficiency in her rural economy” (4, p. 155). 
In eastern and southeastern Europe where village farming and 
-the practice of fallowing persisted acre-yields have been low. Asa 
result of the inefficient practices of the peasant farmers, caused in 
part by the type of land tenure, much less has been accomplished in 
the way of agricuitural improvement than in northwestern Europe. 
The small amount cf improvement reflected in the slowly rising trend 
in yield per acre of wheat in the 30-year period previous to the Rus- 
sian revolution is claimed to be the result of better cultivation 
methods and the use of improved seed on the large Russian estates. 
The record of wheat yields in Russia during the three decades pre- 
ceding the revolution shows a rise from a level of about 8 bushels per 
acre to 11 bushels per acre. 
INCREASE OF FSGD PRODUCTION IN WESTERN EUROPE RESULTING FROM THE 
AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION 
As a result of the revolution in agricultural practices in western 
Europe there was a great increase in food production. The in- 
creased volume of food came not only as a resuit of the great rise in 
yield per acre but also from the increase in the area annually avail- 
able for crops. The growing of a crop on the fields it had been 
customary to let lie idle or fallow every third year did not add all 
of the area formerly fallowed to the acreage of grain crops. Much 
of this area was used in producing roots and other forage crops for 
the increased numbers of livestock. Taking both crops and _ live- 
stock products there was undoubtedly a great increase in the total 
volume of food produced in these countries as a result of the wide- 
spread use of the improved methods of production. 
However, in spite of the great increase in production in these 
countries, the rapidly increasing population kept these countries 
on a deficit basis as far as their food supply was concerned. In the 
case of England especially this food deficit has been considerable. 
In fact, as Doctor Marbut has stated in the discussion reterred to, 
“The modern industrial populations of western HKurope and eastern 
America could not now be fed if they had to depend on the soils and 
production areas to which those factors—i. e., scientific intensive 
production metheds—have been applied ” (7, p. 26). | 
