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diversified. This tendency is already manifesting itself in the great wheat regions of the North Central States, not only in the diversification of crops on the smaller farms, but in the rotation of crops beginning to be practiced on the larger farms. There is also a tendency for even the largest farms to become divided into smaller holdings, and this will further increase the growing of diversified crops. All this diversification will tend to decrease the wheat acreage in the best wheat lands of the West. With the development of our whole country, land values are certain to rise. This is a factor of the greatest importance, for it will make certain lands too valuable for the production of wheat, while it will sufficiently raise the price of other lands now lying idle so that their cultivation will become profitable. Some wheat will be grown on many eastern and southern farms which are not cultivated at present. With the development of drought resistant varieties of wheat, the wheat acreage in the semi-arid regions of western United States will be increased.

It is probable that all of these developments will result in a reverse in the historic westward movement of the center of wheat production, and that this center may begin to retrace its course and proceed eastward, for it is probable that the decrease of western acreage by diversified farming, and the increase of eastern and southern acreage resulting from the raising of wheat on lands formerly abandoned, will more than counterbalance the increased acreage in the semi-arid regions. On the whole, it has been concluded by some students of agricultural statistics that the limit of wheat production in the United States has approximately been reached. With the future growth in population, and especially with the further development of mining and other non-agricultural industries, the home consumption of wheat in the West will be greatly

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exported by way of Gulf and Atlantic ports. With the increase of population and local consumption, the internal and export movement of wheat will greatly decrease, and American wheat will be a factor of declining importance in the international grain trade.

VISIBLE SUPPLY OF WHEAT IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA, FIRST OF EACH MONTH, FOR TEN YEARS'

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QUANTITY AND PERCENTAGE OF DOMESTIC WHEAT, INCLUDING

FLOUR, EXPORTED FROM LEADING PORTS FOR EARS ENDING JUNE

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1 Yearbook U. S. Dept. Agr., 1906.

2 U. S. Dept. Agr., Bu. of Sta, Bul. 38, 1905.

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A feature of the wheat industry in the United States that merits special mention is the increased production of durum wheats. These wheats are now widely grown in the semi-arid regions where the annual rainfall does not exceed 10 or 12 inches. In the early years they were a product very difficult of profitable sale, but they are now assuming a strong commercial position. The nature of the grain was not generally understood by American millers until it had been on the market for several years. In Russia it is blended with about 25 per cent of red wheat, and the same practice has been followed with some success in the United States. Many mills are now grinding the grain. A large portion of the durum wheat grown in the United States is exported, chiefly to Marseilles and other ports of the Mediterranean sea. About 10,000,000 bushels were exported during the year ending June 30, 1906. About 2,000,000 bushels were produced in 1902, 6,000,000 in 1903, 20,000,000 in 1905, and 50,000,000 bushels in 1906.

Russian Wheat Production.-Viewed solely from the point of view of its natural resources and economic aspects, Russia is the United States of Europe. It has immense undeveloped areas that would form ideal wheat lands, lands very similar to those which constitute the wheat belt of the United States. European Russia may be divided into two regions distinct as to the nature of their soil by a line running from Bessarabia in the southwest to Ufa in the northeast. In the southeast is the chernozium (black soil) region, and in the northwest the non-chernozium region, Clay, sand and rocky soils are all found in the non-black soil region, which lacks fertility and is chiefly devoted to the production of rye. The black soil zone is an arable plain, vast in extent, very fertile in soil, arising through centuries from the decomposition of accumulated Steppe grasses and sheltered by outlying forests. This plain stretches across the empire to the Ural Mountains, extending completely over 15 provinces and partially over 12, and even reappearing in Siberia. It is one of the largest fertile sections of land on the globe. In European Russia, the 18 provinces which lie chiefly in the black soil region produce two-thirds of the wheat and only one-third of the rye. Of the 328,000,000 acres of arable land, 59 per cent, or 193,000,000 acres, is located in the black soil region. Of the 197,000,000 acres of cereal crops, 72

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