South proved their effectiveness as my experience did in the North. After landing Amundsen and his party, the Fram put back to Buenos Ayres for the winter, going south again in time to drive her way farther south than any ship had ever been before and to take on board the successful explorers.

In the meanwhile the British expedition, commanded by Captain Robert Scott, R. N., the most complete expedition of them all, is unheard from. It may have reached the South Pole either before or after Amundsen. It is exceedingly probable that it has reached it, for the men on this expedition have had more Antarctic experience than those of any other one. (There is a German, a Japanese, and an Australian expedition besides the English and Norwegian expeditions.)

The English ship, the Terra Nova, was not originally designed for exploration as the Fram was, but it was the finest of the New Foundland sealing fleet, built especially for ice work and strengthened for exploration. Captain Scott's equipment includes twenty ponies and thirty dogs, and one or two ice automobiles, giving him with his men four different kinds of tractive power for dragging his sledges. But the number of his dogs is comparatively few. Captain Amundsen lost thirty-six of his, or six more than Captain Scott took. The British seem to have put their main reliance on their ponies and motors, and in this, though I may be mistaken, I feel, both on general principles and from a study of Shackleton's experiences, that they may be handicapped.

This expedition is working along a route discovered and persistently exploited and completely preëmpted by the British. The navigable part was developed by James Ross in 1841; 277 miles of the sledge journey from winter quarters toward the Pole were blazed by Captain Scott himself in 1902; 366 miles more were added by Shackleton in 1909. From Shackleton's farthest south to the Pole is 97 miles.

Three fundamental natural conditions stand to the advantage of the seeker for the South Pole, as compared with the seeker for the North Pole.

First, a sledge expedition having for its object the South Pole has a permanent fixed surface (for all intents and purposes, land) uninterrupted by lanes of open water, on which to work and travel. On such a surface depots can be established at intervals of fifty miles if desirable, all the way to the South Pole, thus greatly reducing the loads upon the sledges, and enabling the sledges on the return journey to travel almost without loads. A sledge expedition having for its object the North Pole must traverse the surface of a frozen ocean that breaks up completely every summer, and that, under the influence of a severe storm, will crack into impassable lanes of open water almost under the traveler's feet, even in the fiercest cold of midwinter. On this surface no depots can be established. The last depot must be on the most northern point of the land, 413 miles from the North Pole, and that entire distance out and back must be covered with the provisions that can be carried upon the sledges, with no chance to lighten their loads.

Second, the sledging season in the Antarctic regions is limited only by the length of the long Antarctic summer day, and is, therefore, eight or nine months long, whereas in the North, the sledging season, commencing with the first returning light of the summer day, is ended by the breaking up of the sea ice in June, four months later at the best.

Third, the sledging season in the Antarctic regions is late spring and summer, the warmest part of the year; while in the Arctic regions it is late winter and early spring, the coldest part of the year, though this is not of vital importance to an experienced party properly clothed.

These great advantages far more than balance the fact that the distance to be traversed by sledge to reach the South Pole is 700 miles each way, as compared with 450 miles each way to reach the North Pole.

There is the disadvantage in a South Polar journey that the last third of the distance is at an altitude of 7,000 to 11,000 feet above sea level.

Conditions at the two Poles are as unlike as the Poles are far apart. An explorer at the North Pole would be stand

ing on the frozen surface of an ocean two miles or more in depth. An explorer at the South Pole would be standing on the surface of a great snow cap two miles or more above sea level. The most northerly North Polar lands known possess a comparative abundance of animal lifemusk-ox, reindeer, Polar bear, wolf, fox, arctic hare, ermine, lemming, and land birds, as well as forms of insect life — and during a few short weeks in summer numbers of brilliant flowers. Human life ranges to within some 700 miles of the North Pole. On the Antarctic continent, there is absolutely no form of animal or vegetable life, though two or three species of sea birds breed during a few weeks in summer at several localities on the coast. No human life is to be found nearer than

Tierra del Fuego, some 2,000 miles from the South Pole.

Efforts to attain the North Pole have been going on for nearly 400 years.

Efforts to reach the South Pole date back 140 years.

The history of North Polar exploration is studded with crushed and foundering ships, and the deaths of hundreds of brave

men.

The history of South Polar exploration shows the loss of but one ship, Nordenskjold's Antarctica in 1902, and the loss of one or two men on some of the other expeditions. In one respect, they are alike: In the struggle for the attainment of both, success depended in the last analysis on the first primitive machine, the animal men and dogs.

F

OURTEEN of the forty-eight states of the Union possess sufficient improved land of the proper kind of soil with proper climate and sufficient rainfall to produce all the staple crops now growing in the country. To make them do so, all that is necessary is for the average yield to come up to a reasonable standard a standard which many American farmers already have achieved, which some whole counties have achieved, and which is still below the standard of European countries. This could be done and still leave 26,000,ooo acres of improved land in these fourteen states to be devoted to minor crops or to the increase in production of the staples. The corn crop of the United States could be produced upon the present improved land in Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa, and there would be 10,000,000 acres left over. The improved land of Texas could grow all the cotton and rice that this country now grows, and nearly 7,000,000 acres would be left over. All the hay and forage of the

United States could come from the present improved land of Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and 8,000,000 acres would be untouched. North and South Dakota could produce the total wheat crop and have an overplus of already improved land sufficient for the accommodation of the barley crop. tion of the barley crop. All the oats and flax and rye and buckwheat which are now grown in the United States could be handled in Minnesota and Wisconsin. A potato supply equal to the great crop of 1909 could be raised in Maine, and leave nearly a half million acres unused. Massachusetts might grow all the American tobacco crop on her own improved land and keep 109,000 acres for other crops. All this could be done if the average yield per acre were only raised to a reasonable figure. If our yield of corn was 40 bushels instead of 25, if our cotton was half a bale instead of a third, if our potatoes were 200 bushels instead of 106, etc., this could be done. Any one familiar with good farming knows that such yields are possible.

point where we improve our already fenced land rather than add new lands to the farms.

This fact, at the end of the first decade of the twentieth century, marks the beginning of a new era in American agriculture - a new era in which progress is attained through better methods rather than through the increase in acreage, and this new era has already begun; for during the last decade the average yields per acre excelled those of any other period in the history of the country. But this progress

acute, is the fundamental and sound basis for the Back-to-the-Land movement. An increase in the number of people to tend to the land well and to the cultivation of the unimproved acres now included in farms would not only maintain our food supply but would maintain the export trade which we have been losing, and might even permit of an increase of its volume. The truth of this statement is apparent from a consideration of the figures given for the acreage of improved land, and from a statement of attainable crop yields.