An interesting feature of the wheat belt is seen in Fig. 78. The United States Department of Agriculture makes careful estimates of the yield per acre when all products are taken together and each is given a weight proportional to area devoted to it. Such estimates are made or 1.2 times as much. In in the heart of the corn belt, the worst year had an average crop yield of 80 and the best of 118, or 1.5 as much. As soon as the wheat belt, is reached there is a great increase in the contrast between the best and the worst years. In North Dakota, the worst year had a yield of 43, the best of 142, or 3.3 times as much. In the entire belt from North Dakota to Texas the varia bility of the crops from year to year is much greater than in any other part of the country. Farther east the rainfall is sufficient so that a moderate drought does much less damage than in the wheat belt. In the ' dry regions of the West irrigation insures a rather uniform yield of crops. The wheat belt, however, lies along the border line between the well I watered east and the irrigated west. Even a slight diminution in its 20 or 30 inches of rainfall affects the crops seriously. Moreover in the north a cold winter may have a harmful effect. Thus while the farmers of the Dakotas and the rest of the wheat belt have large incomes in relatively good years, they are more likely to suffer serious reverses than almost any other set of farmers in the United States.
This variability of the crops in the wheat belt, is apparently con nected with the fact that great, farmers' political movements tend to arise or at least to become strong in the tier of states from North Dakota to Texas. One of these was the Grange, which was founded in 1867 for educational puiposes. In 1873-1874, when poor crops impoverished the farmers on what was then almost the western frontier, the Grange undertook all sorts of cooperative schemes and entered politics. Later, about 1889, a similar movement under the name of the Farmers' Alliance reached its greatest strength in the same regions. It developed into a so-called non-partisan movement generally known as the Popu list Party. Again during the Great War a similar organization known as the Non-Partisan League grew up in North Dakota where the great fluctuations in the yield of the crops helped to stir up the farmers to try cooperative schemes of all kinds. This movement like its predeces sors failed to accomplish its immediate purpose, but in 1921-1922 the Agricultural Bloc, a coalition of Congressmen representing the influence states, particularly those of the wheat belt, exercised great nfluence on legislation. Other factors played a part in all these movements, but it is significant that they attained their greatest strength where varia tions in the crops cause the farmers to shift most rapidly from pros perity to poverty and back again.
(7) The Dry Plains.—The dry plains lie at the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains between the wheat belt and the typical cattle country The large part played by grain and especially wheat shows that this region is like the wheat belt in many respects. The size of the farms and the relatively large value of the animals compared with the annual value of the crops indicate greater aridity than in the wheat belt, and make the dry plains farms like those of the cattle region in many respects.
(8) The Cattle Country.—The cattle country comprises great areas in the dry parts of the West among and beyond the Rocky Mountains. The actual number of cattle is of course far larger in the states farther east, but in proportion to the population, as is shown in Table 22, Col. C, the number is greatest in the cattle country. The cattle ranches by their very nature must be of large extent. Those of Grant County in New Mexico average 25 times as large as the cotton farms in Washington County, Mississippi. Only a very small part of the land is improved and the value per acre drops to $8, or about a fortieth the value in the corn belt. A marked feature of this part of the country is the large percentage of native white farmers and the comparatively small number of tenants. The distribution of income is favorable. Although the average value of all crops was only $1080 in 19t9, dairy and poultry products yielded $236, and cattle probably yielded in the vicinity of $2000. It should be noted, however, that because of the scanty rainfall a slight diminution in precipitation causes a good many cattle to perish, especially the calves, or more often, leads the farmer to sell his cattle when they are in poor condition and do not bring a good price.
(9) The Irrigation Type.—Along the western border of the Dry Plains, and interspersed among the ranches of the Rocky Mountain Cattle Country, and scattered here and there over all the dry region of the United States as far as California are great numbers of irrigation communities. Among all the types of farming in the United States the irrigation type perhaps approaches closest to the ideal so far as concerns its dependence on a variety of products, its certainty of good crops each year, and its general freedom from the droughts or wet spells which are usually the farmers' difficulties. Making the usual allowance for animals, the income of an irrigated farm in Utah County, Utah, in 1919 amounted to over $300 from animals, over $400 from grain, $700 from hay and forage, $600 from fruit and vegetables, a sum which rises higher if sugar beets are included, and nearly $300 from dairy and poultry products. The relatively small expenditure for labor, $243, indicates that the farmers and their families do most of the farm work them selves. They spend practically nothing for fertilizer because the soil is rich and new, and little for feed, since they raise all sorts of hay and grain at home. Inasmuch as an artificial water supply makes the irri gation farmer largely independent of rainfall, while the abundant sun shine and the rich soil of the dry regions assure him the other requisites for good agriculture, he can count on steady prosperity. Tenancy is rare and the percentage of native white farmers high. Perhaps this combination of many favorable conditions is one reason why the aver age child in Utah is in school more regularly and persistently throughout a long school year than in any other state in the Union.