Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 19.djvu/771

UNITED STATES. In the latter region a large part of the crop has the advantage of irrigation. In most of the North Central States hay is the second crop in respect to acreage and value. In the cotton States but little attention is given it, although there has been a significant increase in this section in recent years. (See Table.) The increase in the acreage of hay has been especially rapid since 1880, the area devoted to it having doubled between 1880 and 1900, the greatest part of this gain being made in the earlier of the two decades, corresponding to the period in which there was a decadence in wheat culture. The prairie region was easily adaptable to the raising of this crop. Moreover, the increased attention given to cattle and horses, and the need of putting the soil under grass to improve its productivity in the older States, have tended to develop this crop. The principal variety of hay is timothy, its production being confined largely to the North Central and the North Atlantic States. But comparatively little of any other kind is grown in the latter division of States. Next in importance are wild salt and prairie grasses, which are produced in the region in which timothy is little grown—the more arid prairie region and westward. Clover ranks third in acreage, but is a long way removed. Its production is largest in the North Central States. In the Western division of States alfalfa is the most important hay. Two or more crops of this variety of hay are obtained annually, and alfalfa stands first in yield per acre. In the far West, especially California, large quantities of grain are cut green for hay. Millet and forage crops are grown in most parts of the country.

. There are two other crops which greatly exceed each of the foregoing as money crops, wheat and cotton. The greater part of each of these crops is sold, particularly cotton. They represent also by far the most important exports, and hence are brought to the notice of the public eye in a degree almost out of proportion to their importance. Cotton is the great money crop of the Southern States, and wheat of the North Central and Western States. The United States wheat crop varies in amount from one-third to one-half that of Europe. Wheat can be successfully grown in every State of the Union. However, the competition of certain favored regions has limited its cultivation in others. A hardy crop and of quick growth, it is the principal crop in the far North, and also in the West, wherever

the climate is unseasonable for corn. The climate and soil are less favorable to its growth in the South. Wheat, more easily than most other crops, may be handled by machinery, and therefore by capitalistic methods. The existence of level prairie lands, unobstructed by stones or stumps, and purchasable at low figures in large quantities from railroad companies, or, as in California, from the extensive Spanish land grants, explains the rise of the bonanza wheat farms—the most typical of which are found in the valley of the Red River of the North and the Great Valley of California. On some of these farms wheat is cut and threshed in one operation by machines, propelled by steam. In the planting of the grain, also, the highest type of agricultural machinery is used. In some instances steam machinery plows, cultivates, and sows in one operation. These farms are being gradually broken up, and mixed farming is taking their place, as the soil becomes exhausted from the too great repetition of the one crop. During the period from 1870 to 1890 wheat cultivation developed in Argentina, India, and other regions, and these countries came into competition with the United States in the European market. In consequence of this fact there was a decrease in the price of wheat, and in turn in the cultivation of wheat over the greater part of the United States. During the decade 1880-90 there was a decrease in the aggregate wheat acreage of five and two-tenths per cent. But the development of wheat cultivation in the countries mentioned has not been so great since 1890, prices have improved, and wheat culture in the United States has revived, the area devoted to its cultivation having increased fifty-six and six-tenths per cent. in the decade 1890-1900. In the regions where the winters are rigorous, especially where the snowfall is not heavy enough to protect vegetation, as in the Red River Valley, or where the rainfall may be inadequate in the autumn, the wheat crop is sown in the spring. In 1901 a little over four-sevenths of the total wheat acreage was winter wheat. With the development of the Northwest, the raising of spring wheat is rapidly gaining upon winter wheat, having increased from about one-third of the total wheat acreage in 1901. Wheat benefited even more than corn from the improved machinery which came into use about 1850 and subsequently. This, together with the improvement of transportation which made it possible for the product of the interior to reach the European market, and together with