The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1901-06-11

"@N VIZ 1900
come, by their natural or artificial
adaptation to our local conditions, to
have q range of sucCessfuul cultlva-
ton almost co-extensive with the
country, there is not one of them
that will not give d greater and bet
ter yield in some certain area than in
any other, and this area is definitely
ascertainable.
The principal purpose of the Bio
logical Survey in the Department OF
Agriculture is to mark out these re-
gions of ideal climatic conditions. AS
this great work approaches compile
tion-and it will take many years
that indiscriminate experimentation
which now results in the loss of mil
lions of dollars annually will grow
less and less, until it finally u
Hereafter the great end to be at
tanned will be tins utilization of the
existing area to the best advantage.
And no more important step can
be taken to this end than the scien
tifc determination of the area where
each important product of the soil
can best be cultivated. Long, there
fore, before 1850, the existing distri-
button of crops over t re ares of pro
duction will have been considerably
changed.
The States that T now producing
the largest crops of wheat On of cot
ton will, with one or two exceptions,
be still the largest contributors to
the crops of wheat or of cotton. But
those States or portions of States
which n now content to go on, year
after year, raising six or eight bush
els of wheat or one hundred 80 one
hundred and fifty pounds of lint cot,
ton to the acre Will have found more
profitable uses for their land. This
will not be because of any inevitable
limitation to eight bushels of wheat
in the one case and TO one hundred
and fifty pounds of cotton in the
other, but because not even the adap
tation of new varieties of cotton OF
of wheat to local conditions will over
come the advantage they may gain by
conforming more closely to the laws
of natural distribution.
A very important result of the
specified scientific Investigation viii
be the introduction of new species OF
varieties Of economic plants from
abroad, and their immediate assign
ment to congeniaI climates and suit
able soils. This will open up enOr
nous possibilities in a country pos
sessing so great a diversity of sol
and climate as the United States
possesses. To judge of these posi-
b~ilities, we have only to look at Il list
of the agricultural products we now
import t. an aggregate value of more
than three hundred and fifty million
dollars a year.
POSSIBILITIES OF NEW CROPS
An average American family con
sumes about sixty pounds of Ameri
can sugar each year, and about three
hundred pounds of imported sugar
For those three hundred pounds t
family we last year paid the Dutch
and British colonies, Germany, Cube
and other countries nearly one hun
dred million dollars. Yet the United
States could produce all the sugar
that its people consume.
Sugar -, in point OF value, one
fourth # all our imports and fol
two-tAirds of the remainder of those
imports we are not more naturally
or more permanently d pendent or
foreign countries than we are fO1
O 1T sugar, Before the end of the
present half century, we shall not
only be producing all the sugar Hre
require, but ali the tea, ali the to-
baccO, all the wines anu all the silks.
FUTURE CHANGE IN METHODS.
Bat what of those notifications in
agricultural methods and conditions
whicJ, without any necessary rela-
ton TO geographical distribution, are
engaging the serious attention of
scientific experimenters?
Among the more important of
them will be a more general rotation
of crops, a nor general and scien-
tifc use of fertilizers, and the Guilt
vatiJn of such varieties of each par
ticular product as are adapted to
local conditions and to the exact re-
quirements of particular classes of
consumers, domestic or foreign.
Although the artificial application