President of the New York Central Lines, was born in Herkimer County, New York, in 1853. Entered upon his railway career in 1869, serving in several advancing capacities until he reached his present commanding position. He is a director of many railroads. THE RENAISSANCE OF AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES. BY WILLIAM C. BROWN. FROM the earliest settlements on the Atlantic Coast until the last few years great areas of fertile land have been thrown open for preemption by the homesteader, or offered for sale at very cheap prices and on long time payments by the western railroads. Settlers were located by the thousands as railroads extended into the wilderness, and each new development was followed by an over-production of farm products of every kind which forced their price below the bare cost of production. Thus, corn sold in Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas for ten to twelve cents per bushel and was even burned for fuel because it was cheaper than wood or coal. The result of this opening up of new land in the far west was a ruinous collapse in values of farming land in New York, Pennsylvania and New England. Not alone in the United States were these conditions making themselves felt but railroads were being built in India, Australia, New Zealand, Russia and Argentina, and cheap land and its products competed in every market on the globe. But present conditions in the United States are the exact reverse of those of earlier years. Consumption is overtaking production with alarming rapidity, values are rising by leaps and bounds-the market is unlimited at liberal and steadily advancing prices-and increased consumption can not now be provided for by increased acreage. During the past ten years the price of all commodities, including farm products, has increased 23%; but separating the products of agriculture from all the rest, it will be found that these. products have increased 87%. During the same period acreage devoted to agriculture increased 23%, production increased 36%, consumption 60%. The area planted with corn shows an increase of three and one-half million acres in 1909 compared with 1899, but in value the increase amounted to more than six hundred million dollars, the average increase in price per bushel being twenty-five cents, or 80%. With an increase of twenty-five million bushels in the wheat crop for the same year, the average price was forty cents a bushel higher than ten years earlier, an increase of 71%. Notwithstanding the use of millions of horseless vehicles, the number of horses owned in the United States increased nearly one and one-half million in 1910 compared with 1900, while the value increased twelve hundred million dollars, an average increase in the value per horse of 131%. No country in the world excels the United States in natural fertility of the soil, or has a more favorable climate; but with careless, uninformed methods of seed selection, fertilization and cultivation the farms of this country produce an annual yield of 14 bushels of wheat per acre compared with 29 bushels in Germany and 33 bushels in the United Kingdom; and 29 bushels of oats per acre in contrast to 45 bushels in the United Kingdom and 51 bushels per acre in Germany. At the same time there is much land in the eastern states, particularly in New York, which, as a result of neglect and misuse, can be bought in many instances for less than the cost of the buildings and improvements alone, some of it as low as $20 per acre. This land is within easy access of the important markets furnished by the large eastern centres of population, and is worth one hundred dollars per acre to build up and replenish. In the earlier days, when new land could be had almost for the asking, there was little incentive to fertilize and maintain the soil by the use of commercial fertilizers; but as the public domain has practically become exhausted and the price of agricultural products has mounted steadily upward, these expenditures will now pay a hundred-fold. Every experiment, wherever tried, looking to better methods, more care in the selection of seed, scientific drainage, more intelligent fertilization, and more thorough cultivation, demonstrates beyond the shadow of doubt that the average yield per acre of the Nation's farms can easily be doubled. The first requisite in the vitally necessary campaign of education is a thorough awakening of our people to a realization of their own opportunities and possibilities; then systematic, persevering work for better methods. The General Government should give it first place among the questions pressing for consideration. Money should be provided liberally and expended honestly and intelligently. Every scheme for the reclamation of arid land by the Government should be pushed to completion; and land susceptible of cultivation, either by irrigation or without it, that is included in forest reserves, should at once be made available for settlement under such conditions as will insure prompt, intelligent and continuous cultivation. Each state should take similar action, and the work should be taken up by Boards of Trade, Chambers of Commerce and other public associations. Railroads are coöperating with the state agricultural colleges and with other institutions having departments of agriculture, in arranging for meetings of farmers in villages and country school houses, for the purpose of preaching this great gospel of better methods, which also means more profitable farming. This work should be continued and extended. Experimental farms should be established in every county of every state, where the most modern methods of fertilization and cultivation and the results of such methods can be demonstrated; where every farmer in the country can see exactly how it is done, instead of being told in books or by lectures how it can be done. No choice remains between the expense and work of maintaining the fertility of the soil in the older states, or of opening up and cultivating rich virgin soil in the west, because practically all of the unoccupied land in the west is gone. There is no alternative: Production must be increased by intelligent methods, or we shall face the relentless certain coming of the day when we shall not produce food enough to supply our own necessities. The imagination can conceive of no higher duty, no broader patriotism or more far-reaching, comprehensive philanthropy than to take part in this vitally important work of improved agriculture. M.Beorn Editorial INCREASING THE AGRICULTURAL YIELD. (Mexican Herald.) NOTICING, the other day, the annual Report of the United States Secretary of Agriculture, we stated, on the authority of that Report, that while the total value of farm products in the northern republic in 1911 had been $8,417,000,000, the value of the agricultural production in Italy in 1910 was, according to a rough but official estimate, about $1,351,000,000, less than onesixth of the production in the United States in 1911-and in Italy, it must be remembered, the soil has been cultivated with proverbial care and skill from time immemorial. In reality, however, the comparison is most creditable to Italy, seeing that Italy is a much smaller country than the United States. The land area of the continental United States, exclusive of Alaska, is given as 2,974,159 square miles, whereas the total area of Italy, with Sicily, Sardinia and the other islands is 110,659 square miles, less than one-twentieth of the area of the United States. The population of the United States is still relatively sparse and no necessity so far has been felt for intensive cultivation. When the soil of the United States has to support a larger population, it will be made to yield more per acre, just as is the case in Europe. Italy, for example, is so densely populated that advantage has to be taken of every square foot of arable land. The population of the continental United States is little more than 30 per square miles, while the population of Italy is 312 per square mile. Nevertheless, a movement in favor of more careful farming is already on foot in the United States. One of the leaders of the movement is Howard H. Gross, president of the National Soil Fertility League, who, in a recent discussion of the subject, declares that American agricultural methods have been wasteful. He advocates the taking up of worn, depleted farms in the East |