Evening star., 1923-08-18
CAPITAL KEYNOTES
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS

1t is foretold by DR.. L. C. Gray. head
: of the farm management branch of
the Department of Agriculture, that
within a few decades the United
States will reach the limit of it's agri-
cultural productivity. and be obliged
to look to foreign countries, with
their cheaper lands and cheaper labor.
for the supply of grains and other
foods. He makes the rather startling
statement that the average yield per
acre of land and crops has not in
creased during the past two dec
AIDES"
Millions of dollars are expended an
nually for scientific research in agri-
farmers. yet in twenty years that in
vestment has not made two ears of
corn or two blades of grass to grow
where but one had grown before"
The department officials explain
that increased yield is wholly depend
ent on increased fertilizer and labor.
! If fertilizer is expensive and if labor
is scarce and wages high. these ele-
ments of increase are spared and no
the war the price of wheat was high,
and that justified intensive efforts of
the farmers in preparation Of the soil
and selection of seed. Since the wheat
price is low 1t does not justify the
same care, and so, in the first case
the yield was proportionately good
and now it has fallen back. 1t is,
then. question of practical eco
nomics rather than matter of sci
entific agriculture that measures the
yield per acre.
That being the case, what would a
practical business manager do about
continuing the unproductive expend-
iture in scientific research and educa-
tion? The average yield per acre of
land and crops has not increased dur
ing the past two decades" That is
probably understatement. Has it
increased within the last four decades
since scientific farming has been
taught in the United States?
DIR. Gray has suggested some i'm
portant questions. These questions
are not put forth as argument, but
only as Interrogation: Whittier Is ag-
ricultural progress drifting? Is II not
more farm economics rather than ag-
ricultural pure science" that is
needed?
put upon the worlds need for more
wheat that diversified farming suffer
ed for the increase of wheat acreage.
The momentum of the lazy mans
, crop" - wheat - has been such that.
without increasing total acreage, more
than $4,000, 900 increased acres devot-
ed to wheat has been maintained
Gi hn "a a
for diversified crops and live stock.
The wheat produced on that 14.000.-
600 acres is surplus, unless the for
eign markets will take il, and Europe
is recuperating agriculturally. so that
the foreign demand for American
wheat is reduced.
The solution of that difficulty. ac-
Icording to the Department of Agricul-
ture. is to turn again TO diversified d
crops and live stock, reducing wheat
acreage.
* x x
What a GRAND feelin' the chronic
pessimist might be experiencing, If
he would only credit all the bad
news in the press. For example, the
United States has just lost $4,000
100000. Lost it? Certainly, Do not
the cables tell us the Secretary Of
the Treasury, Mr.. Mellon, was told
in Paris that France has no inten-
ton of ever repaying what We
! loaned her in time of war? The pes
| simist confirms his misery by calcu
| lating all that that S4,000,000,000
would buy. II would run the whole
United States expenses for how long?
And now il is all gone-maybe.
President Coolidge is not saying a
word about II.
! Then. too. there is the news about
tho coal strike. The miners threaten
to strike September I. All who have