WHEAL There are two other crops which greatly exceed each of the foregoing as money crops, wheat and cotton. The greater part of each of these crops is sold, particularly cotton. They represent also by far the most impor tant exports, and hence are brought to the notice of the public eye in a degree almost out of proportion to their importance. Cot ton is the great money crop of the South ern States, and wheat of the North Cen tral and Western States. The United States wheat crop varies in amoun,t from one-third to one-half that of Europe. Wheat can be suc cessfully grown in every State of the Union. How ever. the competition of certain favored regions has limited its cultivation in others. A hardy crop and of quick growth, it is the principal crop in the far North, and also in the West, wherever the climate is unseasonable for corn. The cli mate and soil are less favorable to its growth in the South. Wheat, more easily than most other crops, may be handled by machinery. and there fore by capitalistic methods. The existence of level prairie land'', unobstructed by stones or stumps, and purchasable at low figures in large quantities from railroad companies, or, as in California. from the extensive Spanish land grants, explains the rise of the bonanza wheat farms—the most typical of which are found in the valley of the Red River of the North and the Great Valley of California. On some of these farms wheat is cut and threshed in one operation by machines, propelled by steam. In the planting of the grain, also, the highest type of agricultural machinery is used. In some instances steam machinery plows, culti vates, and sows in one operation. These farms are being gradually broken up, and mixed farm ing is taking their place, as the soil becomes ex hausted from the too great repetition of the one crop. During the period from 1870 to 1890 wheat
cultivation developed in Argentina, India, and other regions, and these countries came into competition with the United States in the Eu ropean market. In consequence of this fact there was a decrease in the price of wheat, and in turn in the cultivation of wheat over the greater part of the United States. During the decade 1S80-90 there was a decrease in the aggregate wheat acre age of five and two-tenths per cent. But the devel opment of wheat cultivation in the countries men tioned has not been so great since 1890, prices have improved, and wheat culture in the United States has revived, the area devoted to its cultiva tion having increased fifty-six and six-tenths per cent. in the decade 1890-1900. In the regions where the winters are rigorous, especially where the snowfall is not heavy enough to protect vegeta tion, as in the Red River Valley, or where the rainfall may be inadequate in the autumn, the wheat crop is sown in the spring. In 1901 a little over four-sevenths of the total wheat acreage was IS inter wheat. With the development of the North west, the raising of spring wheat is rapidly gain ing upon winter wheat, having increased from about one-third of the total wheat acreage in 1901. Wheat benefited even more than corn from the improved machinery which came into use about 1850 and subsequently. This, together with the improvement of transportation which made it possible for the product of the interior to reach the European market. and together with the adaptability of the prairie soils to wheat culture, resulted in a more rapid increase in the acreage devoted to it than was true of corn.