Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 01.djvu/272

AGRICULTURE. to securing plants and trees suited to local conditions in different climates. Numerous varieties of all sorts of cultivated plants have been obtained through selection and otherwise, and in this way the areas devoted to different crops have been greatly extended. In the vicinity of the large cities market gardening has been a profitable branch of agriculture, and has been the culmination of careful cultivation. Somewhat similar to it has been an industry which has developed in the United States under the name of “truck farming,” and is carried on in places remote from markets. A large part of the vegetables consumed in the large American cities come from places from 500 to 1500 miles distant. According to a census bulletin, issued in 1891, in the United States, upward of $100,000,000 of capital is invested in this industry; 500,000 acres are given to it, more than 230,000 persons are employed, and the annual return is $76,000,000. The South Atlantic States are largely interested in “truck farming,” which, under favorable conditions, is generally very profitable. Other forms of special agricultural industries which have made great progress in recent years are the breeding of animals, fruit culture, poultry raising, and bee-keeping.

Cottonseed, formerly considered very largely a waste product, is now utilized in a variety of forms, and adds largely to the value of the cotton crop. Not only large quantities of oil are made from this seed, but also oil cake and meal for feeding stuffs and fertilizers. Even the hulls of cotton are used for fertilizers, cattle food, fuel, and paper-making.

In speaking of the agriculture of the United States, besides branches touched upon, reference should be made to tobacco, which is grown widely; to the sugar-cane, grown chiefly on the alluvial lands of the Mississippi; to rice, grown profitably in the lowlands of certain Southern States; to the tropical and sub-tropical products of Florida and California, and to the immense flocks and herds of the “ranches” in the mountain region and on the great plains of the western half of the continent.

In the West, since 1880, irrigation has been employed on a large scale in an attempt to reclaim land within the arid belt, a region extending from the centre of Kansas and Nebraska to the farthermost Pacific Coast range of mountains. In that region of scanty rainfall, irrigation may be practiced by taking a water supply from the large streams flowing from the mountains. Within a small area, water may be obtained from the “underflow” by means of artesian wells. Although the results of surveys show that only a comparatively small part of the belt can be irrigated, in certain localities thousands of acres are being made profitable. In two valleys of Arizona (the Salt and the Gila) more than 450 miles of irrigating ditches were opened in the ten years 1880-90. In the single county of San Bernardino, Cal., irrigation increased the number of acres under cultivation from 18,400 in 1880 to 144,950 in 1890. See

. In Europe the cultivation of the sugar-beet has become a prominent industry in Germany, Austria-Hungary, France, and Russia, and of some importance in Belgium and the Netherlands. Germany grows more than one-third of the product, and the four countries more than nine-tenths of it. The vine is of importance

in all the Mediterranean region and in favored localities like those along the German Rhine, where vineyards have given an average net return of more than $100 per acre. Italy gives to the vine 9,000,000 acres, and France, with lowest acreage in 1891, and larger before and since, gives on an average 5,000,000 acres. France, also dating its progress from the Revolution, has become one of the richest of agricultural countries, and previous to 1874 was the greatest wheat producing country of the world. It is noted for its small farms and thrifty agricultural class, more than half of whom are land owners. Germany, the greatest potato-producing country of the world, is also a country of varied agricultural production. Austria-Hungary, only about half a century from serfdom, has a government that fosters agriculture, and presents the sharp contrasts illustrated by the steam cultivator on large estates and the wooden plow on small farms. Russia, only thirty years from serfdom, shows agricultural methods in sharp contrast with an immense agricultural production.

The garden of Italy is the Lombard plain, with its more than 1,000,000 acres of irrigated land and its careful systems of cultivation. Besides large crops of wheat, maize, grapes, and olives, Italy produces great quantities of lemons and oranges, and has more than half a million people engaged in raising silkworms. In Spain, despite vines, oranges, olives, and the possibilities of irrigation and a succession of crops, agriculture looks backward to the time of the Moor.

China, with an agriculture unchanged from legendary times, and India are countries in which rude implements are overbalanced by irrigation and garden-like cultivation. With rice as a principal food product, they support a dense population, have a great variety of crops, and are increasing factors in computing the world's supply.

Egypt, under the guidance of England, is producing great amounts of sugar and a high grade cotton.

Australasia has already developed beyond the pastoral stage, and besides cattle and sheep is exporting dairy and other products. In South America, the Argentine Republic is an important factor in the world's agricultural market, with its wheat, wool, cattle, and wine; and Brazil holds a leading place in the production of coffee. In Central America, including Mexico, the raising of cattle and sheep has become a large industry, and the exports of coffee, cocoa, and bananas are important. The West Indies and the Hawaiian Islands produce large quantities of cane sugar.

The following table, prepared under the direction of Mr. John Hyde, statistician of the United States Department of Agriculture, shows the amount of the principal agricultural products of different countries for the year 1900. Although these returns are not complete for all the countries, they furnish interesting data regarding the relative agricultural production of different regions. Of the world's wheat crop of about 2613 million bushels, the United States produces nearly one-fifth. The other chief wheat growing countries are Russia, France, Austria-Hungary, India, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the Argentine Republic. The United States produces three-fourths of the world's maize crop of 2825 million bushels, and more than one-half of the