Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 53.djvu/369

Rh one foot and a half to five feet. The mold consists chiefly of loam, and in lesser proportion of oily clay mixed with organic matters. It dries up rapidly and becomes pulverized in the process; but it becomes with rapidity impregnated with moisture, and under the action of rain returns to its original condition of a sort of dough as black as coal." The population in this region numbers from sixty-five to seventy-five to the square mile, and is increasing rapidly. In the United States the States producing the largest returns of wheat in 1896 were Minnesota, with a population of 16.4 to the square mile; California, with 7.7; and Kansas, with 17.4. The concentration in the Russian grain region becomes remarkable under such a comparison.

If the returns of cultivated land are defective, the estimates of product are even more open to question. In a report prepared by a Government commission appointed to investigate the condition of wheat in European Russia, exclusive of Poland, the area under winter wheat was given at 6,126,300 acres, and under summer wheat at 20,764,890 acres, or a total of 26,891,190 acres. That was about 1873. In 1892 the wheat acreage of all Russia in Europe, including Poland, was 34,100,835 acres. In 1897 the total area had risen to 36,738,500 acres, of which 24,411,500 were devoted to summer wheat. The gradual extension of territory included in the statistical returns makes comparison from year to year difficult, because the details of each year's aggregate differ. The following table will lack that definiteness which would make it scientifically valuable, yet is sufficiently clear to show the general tendency of wheat culture in Russia since 1872:

From the earliest recorded statistics of exports from Russia, wheat has held an important position. When the repeal of the corn