The General Land Office has published a large wall map showing the land surveys, the national forests, and many other important items.  It may be secured from the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, for $1.

See the New International Encyclopedia and the Encyclopedia Americana on public lands, national forests, and other topics referred to in this chapter.

In lessons in community and national life: 

Series A:  Lesson 4, What nature has done for a typical city.

CHAPTER XV

CONSERVING OUR NATURAL RESOURCES

RESOURCES OF THE SOIL

In the preceding chapter we learned that as a nation we have not been altogether thrifty in the disposal and use of our public lands.  The same thing will have to be said regarding the use of the resources of the land, of which the soil is by far the most valuable.

It is said that 1200 boys in Ohio, organized in clubs, increased the average yield of corn from 35 bushels to 81 bushels per acre.  The average returns per acre from the soil of the United States were lower before the war than in any European country, except Russia.  The following table gives the production per acre of four cereals in the United States and five European countries in 1913.  The same relative position of the United States would be shown if we took the average production of these countries for a series of years.

PRODUCTION IN BUSHELS PER ACRE UNDER CULTIVATION IN 1913

ABILITY OF THE AMERICAN FARMER

The low position of the United States in agriculture is by no means due to inferior ability on the part of the American farmer.  The Secretary of Agriculture says that

Even now no farmer in the world can compare with the American farmer in agricultural efficiency.  His adaptability to new and changing conditions, to the use of improved machinery and processes, coupled with the great natural resources with which the nation is endowed, make him far superior to any of his competitors.  It is true that he does not produce more per acre than the farmers of some other nations.  Production per acre, however, is not the American standard.  The standard is the amount of production for each person engaged in agriculture, and by this test the American farmer appears to be from two to six times as efficient as most of his competitors.

WASTEFULNESS OF EARLY FARMING