Millions in Farming.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 16 February 1911, Page 4

Millions in Farming.

THE UNITED STATES HARVEST ANT) WHAT IT STANDS FOR.

The stupendous agricultural wealth Of the United States and the great prosperity of tho American farmers are indicated in a manner never before realised by "Americans, as presented in the annual report of the Secretary of Agriculture, James Wilson.

American farm crops last year were worth £1,782.200,000. Tins is three times as much as the net earnings of all the railways in tho country, more than twice as much as the total deposits in tho American (savings banks, and more than live times the total of merchandise oxported from the the United State.?.

Tho corn crop, the largest agricultural asset of the nation, is valued at £300,000,000, a sum moro than sufficient to cancel the interest-hear-ing debt of the United States and buy all tihe~ gold mines in all the countries of the world last year.

Tho value of the fnirm products is twice as groat as it was eleven years ago. Secretary Wilson credits this growth to the spread of intensive! farming and the injection of business methods in the cultivation of the soil. More land is being tilled now, the report points out, than even- before in the history of the United States, and the average crop yield per acre has increased measurably. _ "The nation map now begin to derive increasing confidence in its agriculture," writes Secretary Wilson, "because improvements are .permeating the whole country. Production per acre is ."beginning to overtake increases of people. The evidence is very plain that the yields per acre of our crops are now increasing, and if the facts were assembled in detail for the States, it would, be found_ that the percentage of increase in yield in many of them ie greater than the percentage of normal increase of population. "We cannot look for a,ny other result than that the yields per acre of all our crops shall increase at an even faster rate in the future, in view of the intense interest witih which our people are turning their attention to feigrioulifcural improvement. If there are certain forces at work, if unchecked and. made more prevalent, will in the future compel us to Ibig against the world for food, the idounteracting forces have nevertheless been set in motion, with the promise of increasing effect. "It is now clear that the pioneer methods of agriculture are inadequate for the increasing needs of our growing population. There is also abundant evidence that, with a thorough knowledge of the soils and the. intelligent application of modern intensive methods, the yields per acre of our crops can be increased many times."