Excerpt from The Work of the Rural School
To what is this freshly awakened interest due? For an answer one must look to the facts Of our agricultural development during the first decade Of the twentieth century.
In the Quarterly journal of Economics for November, 1912, Mr. J. L. Coulter, of the United States Bureau of the Census, epitomizes the findings of the Division of Agriculture of the Census of 1910. The census shows that during the ten years from 1899 to 1909 agricultural production in the United States increased only IO per cent. As compared with the preceding decade, while the popula tion - the number of mouths to be fed - increased 21 per cent And this failure Of the food-supply to keep pace with the population was most serious in those staples upon which the elemental life Of the nation most directly depends. To meet an increase of 21 per cent. In the population the aggregate production of wheat increased only per cent., of orchard fruits only per cent., while the production of corn actually decreased per cent. The facts here brought to light make it plain that it is the menace of hunger that is turning the nation to the rural school as the only instrument capable of avert ing wide-spread disaster.
We have now reached a stage in the history of this country, says Mr. Coulter, when farmers in average years do not produce much more of the raw materials used for food, forage, and clothing than is needed within the country. In poor years the production may not in future equal the demands of the consumers.
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