The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1881-09-23
American Wheat Fields.

American Wheat Fields.
What is their extent: Can any other
Nation show greater breadth in the
golden grain? Within three years q
prominent statesman gave to France
the leading position in wheat produc-
ton Yet the United States has ranked
the wheat-growing Nations of the world
in quantity for half q dozen years; in
area. for Q period twice as long. Thir-
ty years ago the area did not probably
much exceed 100000 acres, or the
breadth of wheat now to be found in
three leading States. Twenty years
since the area had increased to nearly
5000, 600 acres, and in ten years more
to about 20. OOO, 900. The great advance
has occurred within ten years. the most
of it within five: under the stimulus of
high prices caused by increase of q
prosperous population and an extraor-
binary foreign demand.
Z The census Gin its first count, which
corrections will not materially change)
makes the area producing in the year
1879 no less than 35. 487. 065 acres,
which is equivalent to nearly $4,000
square miles, or the entire superfcies
of the State of Illinois. This grain is
grown in every State and Territory of
the Union, but is by no means equally
distributed, either through the great
geographical sections or even through
out one of the great wheat-producing
States. First as to large districts: The
Seaboard and Gulf Cotton States. nine
in number, furnish but 6 per cent. of
the wheat area and 3 per cent. of the
ptoduce-2,176,2 Psi acres end 13,O68,-
298 bushels-approximately three
fOurths in North Carolina, Georgia and
Texas. 1t is not so much a lack of
suitable sell or favorable climate that a
result so 1npromising is seen. for forty
bushels of wheat per acre have been
grown in this belt, and there are more
than twenty counties in Texas well
adapted to wheat culture, and suitable
soils in all the other States. 1t is be-
cause cotton dominates the cultivation
of that region and corn supplies the
bread of large portion of the popula-
ton. The time will come when much
more wheat will be grown there.
New England is scarcely noticeable
in wheat production, with $4,000 acres
and 1,227, 1877 bushels-225-1OOO of one
per cent. of the total area, and 267-10O0
of one per cent of the product. 1t is
seen that that rate of yield-15.5 BUSH
els-is above the average for the coun-
try, which is nearly thirteen bushels.
New York and Pennsylvania, in the
Middle States and Virginia and Ten
nessee, in the Southern, neither ad-
vance nor retrograde perceptibly. Penn
sylvania, with LAS, 384, is the only
Eastern States with breadth of q mill
ion acres, and is the twelfth in rank,
standing next to Nebraska in area.
California and Oregon are prominent
States in wheat culture that do not
quite show at their best in 1879, having
six per cent. of the aggregate area and
eight per cent. Of the product. In a
good year it should be q tenth of the
crop. We now come to the central area
living between the lakes and the Ohio
River, and in the valleys of the Missouri
and Upper Mississippi. Here are ten
States and one Territory. The
other twenty-eight States and eight
Territories reported in the census
have 8 little less than one-third
of the whole breadth of wheat,
and less than three-tenths of the pro-
duction. They have no surplus, with
the exception of two Pacific States and
one Territory, and most OF them are
compelled to draw upon this central
granary to supplement their own de-
ficiency. It had in 1879 about 24,000,-
600 acres in crop, and produced over
$4,000, 600 bushels, very nearly four
teen bushels per acre. This was 49,
600, 600 bushels more than the yield of
this district in the good wheat year of
1869. an increase of seventy per cent.
This fact accounts for the possibility
of the expectation of 100000 BUSH
els of that crop which were actually
sent abroad.
There is another fact that may con-
travene q popular impression. 1t is
frequently assumed that the soil of the
old States is wearing out, that wheat
culture is moving westward, because
the yield per acre is dwindling. Our
English cousins have adopted this con-
solatory view. and express surprise that
wheat should continue to pour in upon
them. 1t is q great mistake. The re-
verse is the fact, as to the most pro-
gressive and advanced of the older
States that grow wheat. I will admit
that seasons vary; that in 1879 the Ohio
.vsaley had good crops and the country
beyond the Mississippi not quite so
good. The fact stands, nevertheless,
fho+ IN :, sorios If wears the Ohio Valley
produces more winter wheat per acre
than does the northwestern spring
wheat region. The four States-Mich-
igsu, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois-pro-
duced about $50, 900, 900 bushels on q
little more than 10.OO0,00 acres, or
about seventeen bushels per acre.
The spring wheat States-Wisconsin,
Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and the
Territory of Dakota-produced no.
OOO, 900 bushels on an almost equal area,
nearly 10, 600, 900 acres, or about eleven
bushels per acre, say two-thirds as much
~o, ooro NO tho vyinfor Uhnat StafoS