thirteen states now lie agriculturally abandoned is common
knowledge; and that the farm lands of the great Corn Belt and Wheat
Belt of the North-Central states are even now undergoing the most
rapid soil depletion ever witnessed is known to all who possess the
facts. Unless this tendency is checked these lands will go the way
of the abandoned farms.

Some Broad Facts

The United States Bureau of the Census reports that the total
production of our five great grain crops--corn, wheat, oats, barley
and rye--amounted to 4,414,000,000 bushels in 1899, and to
4,445,000,000 bushels in 1909, an increase of less than one per
cent. Furthermore, if we assume the average production reported by
the United States Department of Agriculture for the three-year
periods 1898 to 1900 and 1908 to 1910 as the normal for 1899, and
1909, respectively, and compare these averages with the production
actually reported by that department for 1899 and 1909, we find that
as an average of all these crops 1909 was a slightly more favorable
season than 1899, which indicates that with strictly comparable
seasons the increase from 1899 to 1909 was less than 1/2 per cent in
the production of these five great grain crops of the United States.

On the other hand, the Bureau of Census reports that during the same
decade the acreage of farm land in the United States increased by
4.8 per cent, and that the acreage of improved farm land-that is,
farmed land-increased by 154 per cent. Thus the census data plainly
show reduced yield per acre. In addition we have actual records
which show that during the decade our wheat exports decreased from
210,000,000 to 108,000,000 bushels, and that our corn exports