Chapter III: The Possibilities of Agriculture (3)

[65] The data for the calculation of the cost of production of wheat in this country are those given by the _Mark Lane Express_; they will be found in a digestible form in an article on wheat-growing in the _Quarterly Review_ for April, 1887, and in W. E. Bear’s book, _The British Farmer and his Competitors_, London (Cassell), 1888. Although they are a little above the average, the crop taken for the calculations is also above the average. A similar inquiry has been made on a large scale by the Russian Provincial Assemblies, and the whole was summed up in an elaborate paper, in the _Vyestnik Promyshlennosti_, No. 49, 1887. To compare the paper kopecks with pence I took the rouble at 63/100 of its nominal value: such was its average quotation during the year 1886. I took 475 English lb. in the quarter of wheat.

[66] The rents have declined since 1887, but the prices of wheat also went down. It must not be forgotten that as the best acres only are selected for wheat-growing, the rent for each acre upon which wheat is grown must be taken higher than the average rent per acre in a farm of from 200 to 300 acres.

[67] L. de Lavergne pointed out as far back as fifty years ago that the States were at that time the chief importers of guano. Already in 1854 they imported it almost to the same amount as this country, and they had, moreover, sixty-two manufactories of guano which supplied it to the amount of sixteen times the imports. Compare also Ronna’s _L’agriculture aux Etats Unis_, 1881; Lecouteux, _Le blé_; and J. R. Dodge’s _Annual Report of the American Department of Agriculture_ for 1885 and 1886. Schaeffle’s work was also summed up in Schmoller’s _Jahrbuch_.

[68] See also J. R. Dodge’s _Farm and Factory_, New York, 1884.

[69] Some additional information on this subject will be found in the articles of mine: “Some Resources of Canada,” and “Recent Science,” in the _Nineteenth Century_, January, 1898, and October, 1897. I see from the _Experimented Farms’ Reports_ for 1909 that on the average 38,000 samples of seeds are sent in this way to the farmers every year; in 1909 more than 38,000 farmers united in experiments as to the relative merits of the different sorts of wheat, oats, and barley under trial. I think that my friend, Dr. William Saunders, is quite right in saying that this system of supplying a great number of farmers with small quantities of choice seeds has contributed notably to increase the yield of corn in Canada.

[70] _L’Horticulture dans les cinq Parties du Monde._ Paris, 1895.