The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-10-15
HILLS VIEW BORNE ! OUT BYF|GURES0N NATIONS b|G CROP Gain of Bushel An Acre Made In Food Crops of
 United States GROWN AT A TIME
 NEEDED BY WORLD Figures, However, Show That Foreign Trade of Manufacturers Has Also
 Gained At Opportune
 Time
By HOLLAND

New York, October 14-(Special)-No citizen of the United States can have read with greater interest the final re- port of the government upon the quantity and quality of the food producing crops of this year than James I. Hill. The har- vest must be regarded by him as having proved the soundness of the view he has so often expressed in recent years that Fundamentally the wealth of the country is based upon soil products and that these products can be so increased in quantity and improved in quality that we should continue to have abundance for ourselves and surplus for export even though our population continues to increase as it has increased since the civil war.
 MT. Hill has ventured to maintain that our soil is capable of producing commo- dities of the yearly money value of s15,- GOO, ooo,ooo, provided the attention is given to the soil which the farmers of Great Britain and Holland and Denmark bestow upon their soil. Englands acres are so titled that they produce from 25 bushels to 30 bushels of wheat an acre, yet their soil has been titled for many centuries. while almost all of ours has been cuti- vated only within the past 50 or 50 years
 The government reports show that our farmers have so cultivated the soil that this year they have gained an average of bushel an acre as compared with last year. The grains which are chiefly em- ployed in furnishing food yield this year an average of Il bushels an acre, where as last year only 10 were harvested. Had late climatic conditions been little more favorable the increase would have been somewhat larger.
 Of course, any consideration of the money value of the harvest must include the sudden and extraordinary influence which the outbreak of war upon the con tinent of Europe has caused And yet in any event this harvest which taken as a whole, is the most bountiful we have ever garnered, would probably be of a money value of $l000o, ,O00, GOO, inclusive of cotton, had peace prevailed in Europe this year. The ultimate effect of the war will make good the impairment in the actual harvest as compared with the estimate made by this government in August, for the farmers will be able to get better prices for their products than they would have commanded but for the war.
 The Story of Corn
 Phenomenal as was the harvest of win ter wheat, nevertheless the last report of the government of the condition of the corn harvest contains features that are almost as interesting, although they are not unusual. At the produce exchange il this city, the comment had been made since the latest government report that again it has been demonstrated that mid summer and late summer estimates by the government of the amount of the corn harvest are not to be relied upon. Sometimes these were overestimates, and the authoritative figures have shown har- vests much smaller than those indicated by the governments midsummer figures.
 On the other hand, the government has sometimes underestimated. snd that was the case this year. The country can count with confidence upon a harvest of corn of approximately 2,700,00O.000 bush els. It Is not the greatest yield of corn, but it is up to the average of the past five years. an average which includes the record making crop of somewhat over 5000 100000 bushels.
 The three chief grain harvests when garnered, estimated by bushels. will az gregate approximately 4.750000,000 bushels The feature of this harvest which will be- come traditional is illustrated by the fact that 1t has been garnered at a time when the United States was in need of excep- tionally great increase of financial strength. The harvest of the soil was gar