ehe ea gnets 
Washington, D. C. 
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICUL 
December, 1926 
THE TREND TOWARD A MORE EFFECTIVE USE OF THE LAND AS SHOWN 
BY THE YIELD PER ACRE OF CERTAIN CROPS 
By BERNARD O. WEITZ, Junior Agricultural Economist, Bureau of Agricultural 
Economics, Division of Land Economics and Land Utilization 
CONTENTS 
Page Page 
INTTOGUCEION 2 soos oe 1 | Trend of crop yields in European and 
The awakening national interest other foreign countries—Contd. 
in the soil-productivity prob- Increase of food production in 
Lema ss ea ees 2 oe ee 2 western Europe resulting from 
Have yields per acre declined ?__ 2 the agricultural revolution__ 14 
Purpose and scope of study_-_____~_ 3 Trend of wheat yields in certain 
Sources and character of the data countries characterized by 
HS ©) ei es are ee ce Se 4 comparatively low yields____ 15 
Trend in crop yields in the United Regional changes in productivity per 
SEAECS AS OWN O Lene nse aye ee ee 5 acre in the United States as indi- 
Increase in volume of production re- eated by crop-yield statistics_____ 16 
sulting from rising level of acre- Relation of rising acre-yields to ex- 
WANEL CG Sj cep se 2 ete 2S SE es Ee 8 pansion of production in selected 
Trend of crop yields in European and regions in the United States_____ 24 
other foreign countries__________ 10 | Increased production resulting from 
The trend in yield per acre be- rise in acre-yield level in these 
TOE GSC S Oe eee seeks ae Eee 10 Selected: regions. eee 23 
Trend of crop yields in Europe Summary and conclusions_________ 25 
during the recent period_____ 12 c | Ap Pen ix: 202 ee 27 
Maintenance of livestock_--___ TS lp waiterature “Cited... ==) eee 32 
INTRODUCTION 
Only in recent years have we begun to regard the problem of agri- 
cultural production and its relation to our national food supply from 
a new viewpoint. 
Throughout the period of settlement of our country, which began 
in earnest early in the nineteenth century and has continued to the 
present, the westward movement of the frontier of crop production 
has ever been the focus of national attention. In the 1923 Yearbook 
of the United States Department of Agriculture this condition was 
described as follows: 
The dominant characteristic of American economic life has been abundance 
of land resources. The asumption of this abundance has colored our habits 
of thought and become the essential foundation of our economic policy both 
individual and public (4, p. 415). 
1 Numbers in italic or parenthesis refer to “ Literature cited,” p. 32. 
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