The great growth of the cities has also been responsible for the rise of a new and effec tive type of dairying. The milk and other dairy products for cities are produced not only in the immediate neighborhood but often in regions quite distant, by the aid of the new system of creameries, and elaborate arrange ments for transportation. Certain States (New York, Iowa, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Arkansas and Ohio) have become leading °dairy States," and already dairying is the chief industry in a number of States. The use of the silo has been an important aid in this development, as well as is the new stock-raising in general. Dairying has as yet received little development in the South, but beginnings are being made.
But the most notable, and certainly the most fundamental change, has been in the development of °animal husbandry." The live-stock indus try spread west with the opening up of the country and to-day remains quite strongly localized in the West and Middle West. These, however, are not the regions necessarily the best adapted to it, nor will it permanently re main there. Its localization is the result of the presence of the "public range" and the "corn belt." The development of "stall-feeding,* with the °concentrated foods," gave the Mid-West the advantage over the region of better "grasses" and water-supply, but this region is learning to produce its own foods. The East and South are already beginning to see the spread of the live-stock industry.
Nor are we any longer bound so closely to a fruit-belt as in the past. Fruit growing has escaped the small "orchard," as a mere subdivi sion of the average farm, and has became a busi ness by itself. The most marked departure of recent years has been its extension on a large scale in Georgia, Texas and the Southern States. A rapid growth of fruit growing on a large scale in the new lands of the Northwest is also proceeding. Systems of transportation, ref rig eration, storage and marketing have been worked out and the manufacture of fruit in °canneries* has grown to large dimensions.
Other forms of special agricultural indus tries, such as the breeding of animals, fruit culture,poultry raising and bee-keeping, have also made great progress in recent years. Al ready these minor crops and products outrank collectively and even in some cases individually the staple field crops. The centre of gravity of American agricultural production is shifting with the rise of a more intensive agri culture. Diversification also involves more
varied and complex system of "crop-rotation," which in turn enables labor and equipment to be more economically managed and allows of their freer use, thus enlarging the sphere of °farm management" and developing farm °leadership." From its aboriginal and pioneer state, Ameri can agriculture has had a relatively short, but rich and eventful, history. Some agricultural progress had been made before the coming of the whites, and the first settlers profited by this. Corn was from the first a staple, as it had been for the Indian. But the forests made progrdss slow, and for two centuries the superabundant natural resources failed to bring any great in crease in the products. As late as 1845 our farms did not produce enough wheat for our bread. The period 1830-60 was however revo lutionary, in the rise of markets, better trans portation giving access to them ; the use of farm machinery ; improved live-stock; and the rise of the agricultural fair. Later develop ments have been merely an extension along these lines. The opening of the Mississippi Valley, both north and south, to agriculture gave the industry the general form which it maintains to-day. Other grains than corn were produced early, but only in the West did it become one of the great crops. Live-stock was produced everywhere, but only found its full development in the new West. Tobacco, early grown and for export, gave place to cotton as the alluvial lands of the lower Mississippi were opened up. The wool industry received its first impetus from the introduction of the Merino sheep, but has achieved its greatest success in the new Northwest. The sugar cane was in troduced in the middle of the 18th century in Louisiana, and soon developed a success ful manufacture of sugar, finally producing one half of our domestic supply. But about 1900 the sugar beet industry, begun in Colorado, Michigan, California and other States, began a rapid rise (doubling the number of factories 1900-14) and is rapidly becoming capable of supplying the entire demand. Rice is now grown, profitably and widely, especially in Texas and Louisiana, and is capable of great exten sion. Many varieties of tropical and subtropical products are being grown in Florida and Cali fornia, but this is only in its beginnings. Im mense orchards are appearing in the new States of the Northwest.