The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1890-11-27
GOOD NEWS 70 Z FARMERS
SOON TO BE THE MOST PROS
Porous CLASS.
The Director Of the New York Agricultural
Experiment Station Gives His Reasons
for believing that Hard Times
are Nearly Over.

Now Iork Agricultural Experiment
station, in an address at Ovid upon
"Ihe Future OF Agriculture in the
United States presented facts and
opinions which have vital interest
not only to agriculturists. but to every
body who eats bread and meat. Dr..
Collier believes that hard times for
farmers are almost at All end, and that
soon they will become the most pros
porous class in the land. He makes
this broad prophecy:
'Ihat agriculture of late wears and
at present has failed to bring the pc
cuniary returns which it might all
must admit but that the prospects for
the future of agriculture in thi S
country are forbidding I do not be-
lleve. In fact, at the risk of being
thought optimistic, wish to be placed
on record as predicting that to the
pest OF my knowledge and belief we
are about entering upon an era of
agricultural prosperity the like of
which as people we have never
known, and which prosperity is to be
permanent"
In presenting the reasons for his
opinion. DR.. Collier deals with some
significant facts grouped in an inter-
esting way. He says: ...
'First let US seek to learn the cause
or causes of the present agricultural
depression, since obviously if it or
they can be removed the depression
must cease. We find upon inve stiga-
ton that in this state of New York,
at least, such depression is not due to
a dlminution in the fertility of our
lands If we take the average yield
OF our leading farm crops, corn,
wheat, oats, potatoes, and hay, for the
past quarter of a century was within
so per cent of what it was during
the first; and this diminished yield is
perhaps due in great measure to less
careful cultivation which the low
prices OF farm products seemed in
many cases to excuse, if they did not
justify. .' :~t
GAS with sugar, SO is it with many
another article of consumption by our
people. It is estimated that the per
capita consumption of breadstuffs
amounts annually to an equivalent of
fully eight bushels of grain, mainly
wheat and corn, making the fullest
bread ration of any nation in the
world. ..-
| But | wish to call attention to
the several points which to me appear
to prove that we are, upon the eve of
what | believe will prove the golden
age of our agriculture.
First The population of the coun-
try is very rapidly increasing; from
1860 to 1880 the increase in population
was 60 per cent but OF those living in
cities, 1913 per cent. Nearly one
fourth of ali our people live in cities,
| and since then the number has vastly
Increased, and think relatively So
| We see, then, that agriculturally the
consumers are increasing far more
rapidly than the producers.
i think no one can doubt that with
restoration Of prices to something
approximating what they were, a
revival in agriculture would speedily
follow. I cannot accept either the
explanation wholly Of 'over-production'
nor the conclusion that it is long to
continue. To me it seems that this
production is relative rather than
actual, that it is determined rather by
the ability to purchase than by the
actual needs of the consumer. TO
take for illustration our manufactures,
certainly there is of these products of
labor an enormous supply. but does
this in fact surpass or as yet even
equal the reasonable desires or legiti-
mate needs of our people?
Nov, during the decade before the
present century. from 1879 to 1890.
the annual per capita consumption of
sugar in the United States was less
than ten pounds (9.65). In 1910 it
had increased to only fifteen pounds.
1t doubled during the next twenty
years, being thirty-one in 1850, and
during the past thirty years it has
again nearly doubled since the present
annual: per capita consumption of
sugar in this country is nearly or
quite sixty pounds. Can any one be-
lieve that with such a record there is
reason to question the general pros
perity of the country? III
.'Second-The number of farms in
the United States has nearly doubled,
while the average acreage in the
farms has diminished during this same
period 80 per cent; both facts of very
great significance as evidence that the
area of arabic land was diminishing
relative to the increase in the number
of those who desire to engage in
agriculture.
Eat present 80 per cent Of our
products are consumed at home, or
95 per cent, not counting tobacco and
cotton. 1t scarcely appears as haz-
| Sot:~ Nat \;