Percy paused:  “You know, Mother, that our corn has averaged some less than fifty bushels per acre for the last five years, and, as you say, the lower field has been much better than the old land, and I think you are quite right in your belief that as an average the land is growing poorer, although we cultivate better than we used to do, and our seed corn is of the best variety and saved with much care.  But let me read further: 

“’Less than a year ago I saw it stated that a man, by extraordinary care and labor, had produced of wheat what was equal to two hundred bushels from an acre.  But take fifty of wheat, and one hundred of corn, to be the possibility, and compare it with the actual crops of the country.  Many years ago I saw it stated, in a patent office report, that eighteen bushels was the average crop throughout the United States; and this year an intelligent farmer of Illinois assured me that he did not believe the land harvested in that State this season had yielded more than an average of eight bushels to the acre; much was cut, and then abandoned as not worth threshing, and much was abandoned as not worth cutting."’

“I know it is true,” said the mother, “that wheat was once very much grown in Central and Northern Illinois, but 1859 must have been an unusually poor year, for it was grown for twenty years after that, although it finally failed so completely that its cultivation has been practically abandoned in those sections for nearly twenty years.  However, the chinch bugs were a very important factor in discouraging wheat growing and the land has been very good for corn, especially since the tile-drainage was put in; but on the whole is it not as I told you?”

“But note these statements,” said Percy, turning again to the book: 

“’It is true that heretofore we have had better crops with no better cultivation, but I believe that it is also true that the soil has never been pushed up to one-half of its capacity.

“’What would be the effect upon the farming interest to push the soil up to something near its full capacity?’”

“But what can he mean,” said the mother.  “How can anyone do better than we have done?  We change our crops, and sow clover with the oats, and return as much as we can to the land.  But let me hear further what Lincoln said:” 

“Yes, Mother, this is what he said: 

“’Unquestionably it will take more labor to produce fifty bushels of wheat from an acre than it will to produce ten bushels from the same acre; but will it take more labor to produce fifty bushels from one acre than from five?  Unquestionably thorough cultivation will require more labor to the acre; but will it require more to the bushel?  If it should require just as much to the bushel, there are some probable, and several certain, advantages in favor of the thorough practice.  It is probable it would develop those unknown causes which of late years have cut down our crops below their former average.