similar in character to some of the German Rhine wines, are made from the New York vineyards. The grapes of Ohio and Michigan are largely used for dessert purposes.

Under a system of diversified farming, the naturally rich soils of nearly all these States are still in a good state of productiveness. The competition of Western wholesale machine-produced crops and nearness to large markets have greatly stimulated the diversification of farming operations. The older methods of agriculture which neglect to take into account modern development in farming practices and the necessity of supplementing grain and hay growing with stock breeding, dairying, fruit culture, and garden and special crops have been found unprofitable. The experiment stations in this region are necessarily engaged in promoting the further diversification of agriculture, the use of more intensive methods of culture, and the development of dairying and other special agricultural industries.

MIDDLE EASTERN STATES.

As we pass from this northern group of States to those lying farther south, a marked change in soils, climate, and methods of farming is met with. A series of States is presented in which the growing of one or two staple crops has been fostered year after year on the same soils with little attempt at rotation. The climate becomes milder and negro labor is largely employed.

Virginia is grouped with Kentucky because of the common crop, tobacco, which has found extensive development in each State. Tobacco was the first American agricultural crop to be exported from the colonies. It is an exhaustive crop. In the early development of this industry in Virginia extensive fields of newly cleared land were cropped year after year with tobacco until the returns from the exhausted soil barely reached the cost of production. The fields were then abandoned and new areas sought. All over Virginia to-day may be found these abandoned lands, growing up to pines and underbrush, and one of the prominent problems of the experiment station of the State is to bring these soils back again to a state of fertility suitable for the culture of general farm crops.

The early Virginians, emigrating westward into Kentucky, carried with them a knowledge of tobacco culture. The naturally rich Kentucky soils and genial climate favored the growth of the plant, and to-day Kentucky heads the list of tobacco-producing States in America, with an average annual production of more than 200,000,000 pounds.

While tobacco historically and at the present time is a crop of much importance in these States, it is by no means the only crop grown. The blue-grass region of Kentucky is one of the most famous grazing and stock-breeding districts in America. In 1898 the State produced

85,000,000 bushels of maize, 14,000,000 bushels of wheat, and large amounts of other cereals, hays, etc. Kentucky heads the list of hempgrowing States, and produces more than 93 per cent of all the hemp grown in the United States. The peanut crop finds its greatest development in Virginia. Nearly one-third of the total crop grown in the country is produced in this State. Maize and other cereals and potatoes are also staple crops of Virginia, and in the Piedmont portions of the State apple production promises to become an industry of great commercial importance. In those portions of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and North Carolina included in this section considerable tobacco is grown, but other crops are largely produced and the tendency is now strongly in the direction of greater diversification of agriculture.

The restoration of worn soils, the prevention of washing of lands due to improper culture, and the development of more careful and scientific methods of farming are the chief general problems on which the experiment stations in this region are called upon to work.

COTTON-GROWING STATES.

From the beginning of the nineteenth century, when the cotton gin was invented, cotton culture was developed in this region with the aid of the labor of negro slaves, and the area of cotton growing was pushed northward and westward as the population of the region increased. Land was so abundant that old fields were abandoned for new ones when the yield of cotton diminished, and this crop was so profitable that almost exclusive attention was paid to it. Since the abolition of slavery, though the price of cotton has greatly declined, the amount grown has been very much increased, and the farmers have depended almost entirely on this as their money crop. Careless methods of culture and the leaching of lands left bare of vegetation during the winter depleted the soils and rendered the use of large amounts of fertilizers necessary to successful agriculture. Recently, however, and largely through the efforts of the experiment stations, much has been done to develop truck farming, fruit growing, animal industry, and dairying in the South. More careful methods of culture and the more discriminating use of commercial fertilizers have been widely taught.

If we consider some of the geographical and special features of these States, we find the sea and Gulf coast country a rather low plain, gradually increasing in altitude toward the interior of the continent. The Florida peninsula is peculiar in being a vast ridge which rises from the floor of the Gulf of Mexico. Less than one-tenth of the total surface of Florida lies above the coast plain of the ocean and its greatest elevation does not exceed 300 feet. The soil is light, but the

subtropical climate, with an abundance of moisture and sunshine, makes the response to fertilizers on these soils quick and remunerative. West of Florida the soils are generally richer than along the Atlantic coast plain, being in general largely made up of soil brought down from the interior of the country. The rainfall is also considerably heavier. It is about 90 inches in Louisiana and decreases gradually in amount both east and west until in western Texas it is not sufficient for the support of the forests so generally prevalent over the whole eastern United States.

Texas leads all these States in the production of cotton. Its production in 1897-98 exceeded 24 million bales, or nearly double the amount produced by either Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, or South Carolina, where cotton is the main crop grown. The total production of cotton in the cotton section during the season of 1897-98 was about 11 million bales.

Some of the special crops of the different portions of this section of country may be noted. The lower half of Louisiana produces nearly 300 million pounds of cane sugar annually. Small amounts of sugar, varying from 1 to 5 million pounds, are also produced in Texas, Florida, and Georgia. Louisiana is also a rice-growing State of considerable importance. Cuban leaf and Sumatra wrapper leaf tobaccos of excellent quality are successfully grown in Florida, and Louisiana has long been famous for the culture of the variety of tobacco known as perique. Oranges, lemons, bananas, almonds, and other subtropical fruits and nuts are grown to a considerable extent in Florida and some of the adjoining States. North Carolina is an apple-growing State of considerable importance, and peaches are grown in Georgia and Alabama on a large scale. Texas produced 105 million bushels of maize in 1898, and this crop was quite generally grown in all the other States. Wheat is a minor crop. Live stock and dairy interests are still in the early stages of their development, but promise to become. of great commercial importance. Along the Atlantic coast from Florida north into New England, commercial truck farming constitutes one of the main agricultural features of the different States and is yearly growing in importance.

In the agricultural changes now taking place in this group of States the agricultural experiment stations have played a prominent part. Not unmindful of the need of a more thorough knowledge of the principles underlying the culture, fertilization, and improvement by selection and cross-breeding of the great staple, cotton, and the utilization of its by-products in feeding and as a fertilizer, the experiment stations have yet taken the lead in introducing and cultivating those leguminous forage plants which play so important a rôle in the restoration of impoverished soils on a rational basis. They have furthered the spread of mixed husbandry, in which the keeping of stock suffi

cient to consume most of the products of the farm is urged, fostered the development of the dairy industry, insisted on the observance of the principle of rotation of crops, and pointed out the adaptation of the South for fruit and trucking crops.

THE CENTRAL AND NORTHERN MISSISSIPPI VALLEY AND NORTHWESTERN STATES.

A characteristic feature of nearly all the States of this group and one' of the elements which contributed most largely to their rapid development is the treeless prairie lands. In Illinois and all the States west of the Mississippi River vast prairies, sometimes as level as the sea and again more or less rolling, exist. The rich, black, prairie soil,' sometimes 20 feet in thickness, is almost inexhaustible; and this group of States with reference to the whole area involved is more generally suited to agriculture than any other portion of the United States. West of the Mississippi River forest areas are limited and are usually confined to river bottoms.

The climate of these States is largely controlled by the warm, rainladen winds coming up the Mississippi River from the Gulf of Mexico and by the cold dry winds from the northwest. The rainfall is sufficient for the development of all crops, except in the western parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas, where the semiarid region begins and where seasons of drought often make farming operations precarious.

The crops of the more southern of this group of States include a wider range than is produced in any other section of the United States. All the American grains are grown except rice. Hardy orchard and small fruits flourish and stock feeding and dairy industries are in a high state of development. These States are, however, preeminently maize States. In the Northwest the wheat crop stands out above all others. Commercial fertilizers are not used except in a few limited areas in the more eastern portions of this section and rotations of crops and farm manures are relied upon to keep up the fertility of the soil. The States most largely devoted to maize culture are Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska. In 1898 these States produced more than 1,133 million bushels of maize. During the same year they produced 236 million bushels of wheat, 370 million bushels of oats, and hay in proportion. This enormous production of staple crops, taken in connection with selling prices nearly on a level with the cost of production, has strongly tended toward the development of stock-feeding industries and the conversion of these bulky crops into condensed products, as meat, butter, milk, and cheese. Many farmers in these States are large feeders of western range sheep and cattle, and nearly all the large slaughterhouses are located in this section of the country.

The three States of Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota are essentially wheat States. It is in these States that "bonanza" wheat farming finds its greatest development. Thousands of acres of this grain are frequently under one management, and from horizon to horizon the eye sees but one vast wheat field. On these farms wholesale operations prevail and modern farm machinery finds its greatest application. In 1898 Minnesota alone produced 78 million bushels of wheat. The average yield per acre was 15.8 bushels. North and South Dakota produced 55 million and 42 million bushels, respectively. No fertilizers are used on these farms. Large profits have been realized, but it is an exhaustive system of farming. Unprofitable yields on some of the older wheat soils of Minnesota have already conduced to the introduction of rotative methods and the keeping of live stock, and generally in Minnesota, as well as the Dakotas and States farther south, reckless systems of tillage are rapidly giving way to more considerate and legitimate agriculture.

The experiment stations in this section of States are directing their energies toward the solving of problems which most directly affect their respective States. Alternate seasons of rainfall and drought along the western borders of several States have led to special studies in the conservation of soil moisture by tillage, subsoil plowing, and cultivation at different seasons. Irrigation farming from artesian wells has found a limited development. Improvement of wheat by selection, crossing, and breeding is going on in Minnesota and the Dakotas. Suitable hardy fruits for the colder northern States are being introduced and older varieties improved. The principles of stock feeding and dairy farming are being studied in nearly every State, and these problems are among the most important features of the work of the experiment stations in this region.

THE ARID AND SEMIARID REGION.

This great region lies between British America on the north and Mexico on the south, and extends from the one hundredth meridian on the east westward to within 200 or 300 miles of the Pacific Ocean. It is a high plateau of scant rainfall and completely separates the agriculture of the East from that of the Pacific States. Cattle and sheep grazing is at present the only agricultural industry except where irrigation farming is practiced. The vegetation of the larger portion of the arid plains, though scant, originally supported millions of buffaloes. The buffaloes have disappeared, but from Montana to Texas herds of cattle and sheep have come to take their place, and cattle and sheep ranches have become characteristic institutions of these Western States. The State most largely engaged in cattle grazing is Texas. The whole western part of the State is one great cattle ranch, where more than 5 million cattle are grazed annually.