THE EFFECTIVE USE OF LAND AS SHOWN BY YIELD 9 
Figure 4 shows the composite trend in yield per acre of these 
crops.” 
Co ite the first 5-year period as a base, the half decade of 
1920-1924 indicates a rise of about 17 per cent in the composite yield 
per acre of the four crops. For the quinquennial periods of 1890- 
1894 and 1900-1904 there was a decline in the composite yield per 
acre figures as compared with the yield figures for the half decades 
immediately preceding. In the former period this was due to sev- 
eral below-average corn and oat crops; in the latter the downward 
break was in great part due to the disastrously low corn yield of 
1901, in which year the yield per acre of corn dropped to 17 bushels 
per acre. 
For the period as a whole, however, the composite yield per acre 
of these crops displays an upward trend which still continues. 
TREND IN COMPOSITE YIELD PER ACRE FOR 
CORN, WHEAT, OATS, AND POTATOES 
( WEIGHTED BY ACREAGE ) 
ta United States, 1885-89 — 1920-24 
PER 
CENT 
1885-89=100 
i a ae 4 | 
105 Oe / lf ee 
EL eerie 
115 
110 
n + on) + oO + a + 
© ) a fo) ro) — — N 
3] cf) "| oT 1 1 “1 “| 
it) (2) its) ° it) fo) in ° 
a 2) co) ° ° = - n 
o Ce) oO (2) Co) ov Qa o) 
Fig. 4.—For the period as a whole the trend has been upward, the greater part of the 
composite increase in acre-yields being realized between 1895-1899 and 1905-1909. 
During the last 15 years the rising trend has been maintained, but at a slow rate of 
increase 
The significance of this indicated rising trend and increase in 
productivity becomes more manifest when stated in simpler terms. 
Considered from the viewpoint of volume of production, the rise 
in the yield per acre of these crops during the period of 40 years 
resulted in making available annually during the half decade 1920— 
1924 about 440,000,000 bushels more of corn, 120,000,000 of wheat, 
165,000,000 of oats, and 115,000,000 of potatoes—in all over 800,000,000 
bushels more than would have been realized under the yield level 
prevailing at the beginning of the period. 
Viewing this increase from still another and perhaps more human 
angle, the increase in total production as a result of the rise in 
acre-yield level provided the population of the United States an- 
5 The yield figures on which this index is based have been weighted by the acreage de- 
voted to these crops in each ef the quinquennial periods, : 
tS1d2 20a 
