On the other hand, the Bureau of Census reports that during the same decade the acreage of farm land in the United States increased by 4.8 per cent, and that the acreage of improved farm land-that is, farmed land-increased by 154 per cent.  Thus the census data plainly show reduced yield per acre.  In addition we have actual records which show that during the decade our wheat exports decreased from 210,000,000 to 108,000,000 bushels, and that our corn exports decreased from 196,000,000 to 49,000,000 bushels, in order to help feed the increase of 21 per cent in our population.  And yet the people complained of the high cost of plain living and many have been forced to adopt lower standards for the table.  Meanwhile the value of the farm land in the United States increased by 118 per cent during the ten years—­from $13,000,000,000 to $28,500,000,000—­as reported by the Bureau of Census.

The Value of Land

The great primary reason why land values have increased so markedly during the last thirty years is that America has no more free land of good quality in humid sections.  Civilized man is characterized by hunger for the ownership of land.  Our population continues to increase by more than 20 per cent each decade, but all future possible additions to the farm lands of the United States amount to only 9 per cent of the present acreage, and most of this small addition requires expensive irrigation or drainage.

If it cost $4 an acre to raise corn, 5 cents a bushel to harvest and market the crop, 9 cents a bushel to maintain the fertility of the soil, and 1/2 per cent on the value of the land for taxes, then, if money is worth 5 per cent, land that produces 20 bushels of 40-cent corn is worth $21.81 an acre.  On the same basis, what would land be worth that produces 40 bushels of corn and equivalent values of other crops?  At first thought one might say, $43.62; but this answer would be far from the correct one, which is $116.36.

And, if we again double the yield, making it 80 bushels an acre, the value of the land becomes not $87.24, and not $232.72; but easy computation will show that the gross receipts from an 80-bushel crop will pay $7.20 an acre for soil enrichment, $4 for raising the crop, $4 for harvesting and marketing, $1.53 for taxes and 5 per cent interest on a valuation of $305.45 an acre.

The average yield of corn in the United States is only 25 bushels an acre, and the average net returns even from the farms of the Corn Belt will not pay 4 per cent interest on their present market value.  But the intelligent investment of $2 an acre annually in positive soil enrichment will increase the crop yield by two bushels of corn each year—­or by equivalent amounts of other crops grown in the rotation—­and will maintain this increase for at least a dozen years on the average land now under cultivation in the United States; and no other safe investment can be named that will pay so great returns.  Of course, the cost is $1 a bushel for the first year’s increase, and even the second year the 4 bushels of corn cost $2; but what is the cost per bushel of the increase the tenth year?  It is 10 cents; and the twelfth year the 24 bushels of increase cost only 8-1/3 cents a bushel, with a return of nearly 500 per cent on the annual investment in soil improvement.