Page:Walter Renton Ingalls - Wealth and Income of the American People (1924).pdf/107

Rh of the country reached its low ebb during 1920-1921 crop planting seasons.

“Large sections of agricultural belts in this country where fertilizers are used need plant food badly. The low price of cotton has actually brought about some diversification of crops in the belt, which in itself is beneficial to the soil, but cotton like tobacco demands rich soil, and mere diversification for one year will hardly take the place of fertilizers. For two years the South has not been using sufficient plant food. About two-thirds of the country’s fertilizer output goes to cotton and tobacco, because these plants take so much out of the soil. In 1921 Mississippi and Arkansas took only 27 per cent of the previous year’s tonnage. The Carolinas, the greatest fertilizer consuming section of the country, took about 50 per cent of last year’s shipments, and Georgia, the next largest consumer of plant food took but 554,809 tons, against 1,082,672 in 1920.”

With regard to farm buildings the census data are much less satisfactory than for land values. For 1910 the average figured for all buildings was $994 per farm, which strikes me as being ridiculously low. As of Jan. 1, 1920, the average per farm is computed at $1,773, which does not look any too high. In the Northeastern and Middle Western states the value of the buildings on an operated farm is a great deal more than $1,800. In the South and Far West there are a good many farms that are worked with but few buildings, and those of inferior character. Even so, I can not but view the census figures as being too low. However, while rejecting them, I can not substitute anything better except by what is largely guess work.