I'd vote for him

[Amianthus]

No, I'm under the impression that yields per acre have increased exponentially over that time.

And while the yield per acre has gone up, what has the sale price done (in terms of real cost)?

[Amianthus]

Does Tee know something about Farming we don't.  An acre of corn is still an acre of corn, last I checked

He's correct, the yield per acre has gone up over the last century.

[sirs]

Exponentially?

[Amianthus]

Exponentially?

Define exponentially.

In 1900, average maize yields were 40 bu / acre. We're pushing average yields near 200 bu / acre now. (One county broke the record last year with nearly 400 bu / acre production.)

[sirs]

Exponentially?

Define exponentially.

Used as an adjective, it's largely related to something growing/increasing at an unheard of #.  There is not specific # that can be applied, but one would ususally consider exponentially as 1000+x.  AT least I would since there are other more accurate adjectives that could be used for lesser #'s

In 1900, average maize yields were 40 bu / acre. We're pushing average yields near 200 bu / acre now. (One county broke the record last year with nearly 400 bu / acre production.)

Impressive, though I wouldn't refer to that as exponentially impressive.

[Amianthus]

The amount a farmer will earn per acre, however, has gone way down in terms of spending power. Even when the Homestead Act was first passed, the lot size ("1/4 plot" or 160 acres) was considered only enough for subsistence farming. A farmer would earn enough to keep himself going from year to year, not really making any headway. That's why a "plot" was 640 acres. Anyway, later acts increased the size of the homestead lots to 320 acres and even later to 640 acres.

[Plane]

<<Are you under the mistaken impression that food costs per capita in the US have stayed stable over the last century?>>

No, I'm under the impression that yields per acre have increased exponentially over that time.

This requires modern methods.

Like buying Hybrid seed corn and operateing a tractor.

How long would it take a person operateing a 200 acre "farm" to pay for a tractor?

If Ami is accurate:

A farmer farming corn makes about $100 per year per acre. So, this farm of 1,500 acres would have an income of around $150,000.

A person operateing a 200 acre farm might possibly get 20,000 a year , which if entirely devoted to tractor buying would pay for a tractor every other year , too bad that the farmer must also eat and fuel that tractor.

By the way- I grew up on a hobby farm in central Georga. At first the owner did a lot of the tasks himself and my father and I tended the cattle , but when he got serious about makeing a profit he rented the land to a more professional farmer who planted it in soy and tended the crop with very professional large equipment. This farm was only 600 acres and so was not enough by itself to support such an effecient and modern set of large tractors , harvestors and associated equippage.

600 acres is approxamately one square mile and was more than half airable , at this size it could possibly have been self sustaining , but would have been a marginal operation prone to loose money when the crop year was especially bad , or good.

And being near to a growing town its land value was considered in light of the surrounding Levvitowns , if it had been the main family asset the government would have confiscated half of it at the owners death , lucky for us the owner had sufficient other recorces , elese the government would have tossed us sharecroppers onto the street on that occasion.

That has happened to a lot of sharecroppers , and this is why the tipical American farm is corprate owned now , operated by employees of companys like Monsanto , Prudential or Turner Broadcasting .The government loves effieciency and the farm that is sixty miles square is effecient in a way that a farm that is only one mile square cannot be.

  The government is complicit in the trend twards large agribusiness farms  , by confiscateing everything large enough to be self sustaining but giveing subsity to every farm big enough to hire its own staff of lawyers , the squeeze is applied to eliminate the family farmer .