Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 59.djvu/578

568

HE conditions of Europe in the present year compel attention to the food supply of what is called the civilized world. The principal supply of grain exported and a large part of the supply of meat are derived from the central United States, in the northern section of the Mississippi Valley.

The area of the twelve States of the northern Mississippi Valley, on which main dependence is placed, is given in the subsequent table; also the proportion of each State which is now devoted to the crops of Indian corn or maize, wheat and oats, which are the chief dependence for the grain supply of man and beast; rye, barley and buckwheat being of minor importance. In another table the proportion of the area of each State which is devoted to each of the three principal grains is indicated graphically.

By far the larger proportion of all these States is arable land, portions of the western section being for the present uncertain in their product, because of semi-arid conditions. Ere long, however, these sections may become the most productive, irrigation on a national scale being under way.