Page:Evolution of American Agriculture (Woodruff).djvu/70

66 one phase of farming, but is enough to indicate the great increase in productivity as the machines were gradually introduced. In 1840 the working farmer produced 188 bushels of all kinds of grain, while in 1919, he produced 432 bushels of all kinds of grain, an increase of 238.8 per cent (see Table D). Table C is faulty in the respect that it refers the cereal production to the total number of farmers. That would be well enough for 1840, but in 1919 and for many years past, there has been specialization in farming and a large percentage do not produce any grain whatsoever, which means that the efficiency of the grain farmer is really much greater than the table indicates. Quaintance, for instance, places the individual increase of barley production per farmer in 1910 at thirty times the production of 1840.

See Page 65 (Table D).

It is interesting to observe that while our population has increased 6 1-3 times, and the industrial population has increased 14.8 times, the working farmers have increased but 4 1-9 times. While the farmers have increased 4 1-9 times, their cereal production has increased 9.8 times and the grain production per capita of total population increased from 36 bushels in 1840 to 56 bushels in 1919.

For years we have had dinned in our ears the cry of "Back to the land! Back to the land!" The impression sought to be conveyed being that our countryside was becoming depopulated. But the fact of the matter is that there has been no movement away from the land. The agricultural population has steadily increased, as Table A amply shows. But it has not increased at anything like the rate of the industrial population. The decrease of the number