Page:The truth about the railroads (IA truthaboutrailro00elli).pdf/197

Rh year in the states comprising the American Northwest was $691,634,435. This is a very large sum of money, equal to $120 per inhabitant, but to only $5.50 per acre for all of the farms, and to $9.50 per acre based on the improved land in farms. Denmark, with a much more dense population of 183 to the square mile as compared with a little over 9 in the American Northwest, has so improved methods of work and of agriculture that the average annual value for the same classes of products for every acre in that little kingdom is $225.16. Because of the greater density of population, the production per person averages $65.33.

Something has been done in the direction of improving agricultural methods in this country, but these figures show how far behind we are in making the best and most productive use of our soil. Suppose that the yield per acre on improved farms only was one half of the average for the whole of Denmark, then the production from the soil in the American Northwest would amount to more than Rh