Page:The truth about the railroads (IA truthaboutrailro00elli).pdf/180

The average wheat-yield of 1909 is a fair standard by which to judge the average production of these three states. The average wheat-production per acre for the United Kingdom during the ten years ending in 1899 was 33.1 bushels. These states, with comparatively new and very rich land, are therefore raising but 44.7 per cent of the crop that is being produced on the very old lands of Great Britain. Germany’s average for the ten years ending in 1899 was 28.9 bushels, almost twice as much as Minnesota and North and South Dakota raised, and more than twice as much as the general wheat average in the United States. In 1900 the tri-state wheat acreage was 15,600,000 acres. At the average farm value of December 1st, the value of the wheat-crop was $216,647,000. If this new and rich land had produced as high an average yield as that of the United Kingdom, the harvest would have been increased by 273,966,000 bushels, and $255,500,691 additional would have found its way into the farmers’ pockets. In other words, the farmers would have con-