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and forage, $2,883,682; dairy products, $2,481,673; cereals, $19,093,722.

The Agricultural and Mechanical College at Stillwater is the agricultural college of Oklahoma, but it receives no revenue from the act of 1862. The federal Experiment Station is a department of it. The Board of Agriculture, composed of the Governor and six members elected by delegates from chartered county farmers' institutes, is charged with the enforcement of the nursery, fertilizer, and feeding-stuffs inspection laws. The Secretary of the

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Board, in coöperation with the Experiment Station, superintends the work of farmers' institutes. The leading agricultural societies are as follows: Horticultural Society, Cattlemen's Association, Improved Stock-Breeder's Association, ShorthornBreeders' Association, Corn-Breeders' and Growers' Association and Dairymen's Association. There are several poultry societies, but no territorial poultry association. Neither is there a territorial fair association, though many local fairs are held each year.

CORN-BELT STATES

OHIO. (By C. E. Thorne.) Ohio possesses a soil and climate admirably adapted to the growth of maize, oats and winter wheat; from its earliest occupancy by the white man the production of these cereals has been the leading agricultural industry of the state.

All kinds of fruits and plants that will endure freezing temperature find here a congenial home, especially along the lake shore and on the hills in the southern part of the state.

Pasture grasses flourish almost everywhere, and the keeping of live-stock has always been a prominent feature of the agriculture of the state, although this industry has not kept pace with grain production since the exploitation of the free ranges of the West.

MIAMI VALLEY

seven hundred feet along the lake shore and in the narrow valleys of the Ohio and its tributaries.

The Ohio river, forming the southern and southeastern boundary of the state for several hundred miles, and Lake Erie, constituting the larger part of the northern boundary, furnish natural highways which contributed much to the early prosperity of the state. Lying, as it does, in the pathway

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Throughout the state a more or less systematic rotation of maize, oats, wheat, clover and timothy is practiced, the oats crop being frequently omitted in the southern counties. In the hilly counties the crop yields are invariably lower than on the more level land. These counties are naturally adapted to orcharding and the pasturage of sheep, industries which have been more prominent in the past than at present, but which it is believed will be revived in the future. In the northwestern quarter of the state is a great area of black soil, once semiswamp, now reclaimed by drainage, an area which is leading the state in the production of maize. The northeastern counties, with large areas of cold, clay soil, have been celebrated for dairy products, while the southwestern counties, through which flow the two Miamis, with their fertile valleys and scarcely less fertile uplands between, have been the richest region of the state in natural advantages, and are likely to prosper again when a better method of soil management shall have restored the fertility that has been wasted because of its very abundance.

Fig. 64. General distribution of Ohio agriculture.-Hill counties, orcharding, sheep-pasturing; Miami valley, richest section of the state; dairy counties, dairying; grain and hay in other sections.

Topographically the state is a great flat plain, lying at an average altitude of about one thousand feet above the sea, rising to fifteen hundred feet in a few isolated hills and dropping to six hundred or

between the East and the West, it has become netted with some nine thousand miles of railway, and several large cities and many smaller ones have grown up within its borders or within easy reach, thus giving an urban population of several millions within a night's ride of the center of the state. This means that the agriculture of the state will more and more drift into the production of perishable commodities which command relatively high

prices, and into the fattening of animals grown on cheaper lands.

The total land area of Ohio is 26,086,400 acres. Of this, according to the Twelfth Census Report (1900), 24,501,985 acres are in farms, 19,244,472 acres of which, or 78.5 per cent, are improved land. There were then 276,719 farms in the state. The total value of the farm property was $1,198,923,946. The total value of the farm products was $257,065,826. The values of the leading products were: Domestic animals, $120,466,134; hay and forage, $29,047,532; dairy products, $25,383,627; cereals, $91,748,320.

The Ohio State University, located at Columbus, is the land grant institution of the state. Within it is organized a College of Agriculture and Domestic Science. The Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station was organized independently of the University in 1882, and is the beneficiary of the national experiment station law. It is at Wooster. It has three sub-stations, or test farms, located in Cuyahoga, Montgomery and Meigs counties. The Ohio State Board of Agriculture, an elective body, performs the functions of a state department of agriculture. This Board, or its secretary, is charged with the inspectional and police work of the state as it affects agriculture, with the management of the state fair, which is permanently located at Columbus, and with the control of farmers' institutes. The leading agricultural associations are the Ohio State Horticultural Society, the Ohio Merino Sheep-Breeders' Association, the Ohio Wool-Growers' and SheepBreeders' Association, the Improved Delaine Merino Sheep-Breeders' Association, the Ohio ShorthornBreeders' Association, the Ohio Horse-Breeders' Association, the Ohio Plant-Breeders' Association, the Ohio Dairymen's Association, the Association of Fair Presidents and Secretaries, the Ohio Agricultural Student Union and the Ohio State Forestry Society.

INDIANA. (By A. T. Wiancko.) With the exception of a few counties in the northeastern corner, and a narrow strip near Lake Michigan, the state of Indiana slopes gently in a southwesterly direction, draining into the Ohio river at the southwestern corner at an elevation of 370 feet above sea-level. The highest elevation, 1,140 feet, is in Randolph county, about half-way up the east side of the state. The northeastern part of Indiana is rolling and contains numerous small lakes. The soil here is mostly a clay loam, with some level, dark, loamy areas and numerous small mucky depressions. There are considerable areas of sandy, and of flat and marshy land in the northwestern part of the state. Much of this section is still too wet for general cultivation, but drainage operations are proceeding rapidly. Twenty-five to one hundred miles south from Chicago there are large areas of muck soil.

The Wabash valley is generally of a loamy nature and well suited to all branches of agriculture. The middle part of the state to the east and south of the Wabash valley is generally rolling, with a rich loamy soil, inclining to be clayey along the eastern side. The southern part of the state, with the exception of the Wabash valley on the west and

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Fig. 65. Map of Indiana, showing isotherms.-The state is very homogeneous in agricultural possibilities, having few very well-marked special agricultural areas (excepting the muck-lands in the northwest).

The climate of Indiana is favorable to general agriculture. The mean annual temperature is about fifty-two degrees Fahrenheit, and for the growing months is about seventy degrees. The mean annual rainfall is about thirty-nine inches, and is well distributed throughout the year. Periods of extended drought are rare. As a whole, the state is well watered.

Corn is the principal crop everywhere, the central and western sections being foremost and producing the finest corn in the world. Winter wheat is also universally grown, except in the prairie region of the northwest, the southern counties leading. The value of the wheat crop amounts to about $20,000,000 annually. Oats are also largely grown,especially in the north-central and northwestern regions. Barley and rye are very little grown. Clover is an important crop all over the state, both for hay and for seed. Timothy is also largely grown and well distributed, and orchard-grass is an important crop in the southeast. Alfalfa is being introduced successfully in many sections and promises to be an important crop. The potato crop is relatively unimportant, though the natural conditions are gen

erally favorable. The total annual value of horticultural products amounts to about $12,000,000. About one-third of this is fruits, produced in southern and central Indiana. The third important onion-producing center of the United States is in northern Indiana. Peppermint and celery are also largely produced in the north. In the southwest, large quantities of melons are grown. Indiana is in many ways well suited to horticultural production, and fruit-growing, especially apples, and vegetablegrowing have bright futures.

The live-stock interests of Indiana are large, hogs and cattle leading. Hogs yield about one-half the annual income from this source. The natural conditions for dairying are excellent, but the business is crowded out by corn and hogs.

The market facilities are good. The state has a regular network of railways and electric-car lines leading to important centers of consumption, of which Chicago, Indianapolis, Louisville and Cincinnati are the chief. Along the Ohio river, watertransportation facilities take care of a large amount of produce.

While corn production promises to remain the principal branch of Indiana agriculture for some time to come, the most promising fields for development are in the lines of live-stock, dairying and horticulture.

The total land area of Indiana is 22,982,400 acres. Of this, according to the Twelfth Census Report (1900), 21,619,623 acres are in farms, 16,680,358 acres of which, or 77.2 per cent, are improved land. There were then 221,897 farms in the state. The total value of the farm property was $978,616,471. The total value of the farm products was $203,000,000. The approximate annual values of the leading products were: Field crops, including hay and grain, $130,000,000; domestic animals, $45,000,000; dairy products, $16,000,000; horticultural products, including vegetables, $12,000,000.

The land grant institution of Indiana bears the name of Purdue University and is located at Lafayette. In connection with this is the federal Agricultural Experiment Station. There is a State Board of Agriculture, with headquarters at Indianapolis. This body receives some support from the state. The state fair is located permanently at Indianapolis and is managed by the state board of Agriculture. There is an extensive system of farmers' institutes, under the supervision of the Purdue University School of Agriculture. The leading agricultural societies in the state are as follows: Indiana Horticultural Society, Indiana Corn-Growers' Association, Indiana Live-stock Breeders' Association, consisting of a federation of various animal breeders' societies, Indiana State Dairymen's Association and Indiana Potato-Growers' Association.

ILLINOIS. (By J. G. Mosier.) Illinois is primarily an agricultural state. Almost all types of agriculture are practiced to a greater or less extent throughout the state. Illinois led the states in total agricultural wealth at the last census.

The demand for milk in the cities of Chicago and St. Louis has caused dairying to develop around

those places as centers. It is of secondary importance over a much larger area. Facility for quick transportation is an essential factor in the development of this business. Stock-raising and feeding, while generally practiced, are best developed in the west-central and northern parts, where large numbers of hogs and cattle are fattened every year.

Fruit-growing on a commercial scale is especially well developed in an area extending from the southeast-central to the southwest-southern part, the northern part of this region being the center of the fruit-growing area of the state. These fruits comprise apples, pears, plums and strawberries. Welladapted soil, coupled with good transportation facilities, determine the distribution of fruit-growing. Apples are extensively grown in an area stretching to the mouth of the Illinois river north into the deep loess-covered area to the latitude of Keokuk. Truck-growing is conducted in small areas near centers of consumption, as around Chicago and St. Louis,

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Fig. 66. Leading agricultural regions in Illinois.-A, dairying (secondary), general farming; B, dairying (principal); C, wheat-growing; D, fruit-growing, general farming: E, fruitgrowing; F, trucking; H, occasional fruit-farm, well adapted to fruit-growing. Corn and oats belt north of line XX. through the character of the soil and transportation facilities admit of its being undertaken at greater distances.

Corn, oats, wheat and hay form the chief crops over a large part of Illinois. Corn and oats are most largely grown over the northern two-thirds of the state on the darker soils. In 1904, the acreage of these two crops constituted at least one-third of

the entire area of the state, and their value was $142,688,833. Wheat is grown rather extensively in the general farming of the southern third and in the southwestern part of the central division. Winter wheat only is grown, and the crop is very well adapted to both the soil and the climate. Hay is grown throughout the entire state, but much more extensively in some parts than in others. The underdrained swamps of the northern part produce large amounts.

The state lies almost entirely within the area of glacial drift, and, as a consequence, the soils have been formed to a large extent by transported material. The glacial topography gives rise to rolling prairies. The larger part of the northern two-thirds of the state is prairie, formed by the glacial drift, and the soil is a dark brown silt loam, very fertile and well adapted to growing corn, oats and grass. Timber usually occupies small areas along streams, and here the soil is usually a gray silt loam, better adapted to grass and wheat, although corn and oats produce fairly well on it. The soil of the southern third is a gray silt loam well adapted to growing fruits, especially apples, wheat, grass and cowpeas. Alluvial land is found along the many streams, giving a soil of the highest productive capacity.

Illinois possesses a climate well suited to the requirements of a great agricultural commonwealth. The rainfall is well distributed throughout the state, the average annual fall being 37.39 inches. The average annual temperature of the state is 52.3 degrees Fahrenheit, varying from 48.9 degrees in the northern district to 55.9 degrees in the southern. The length of time between killing frosts in spring and fall, 155 days in the northern part and 195 days in the southern, gives a season sufficiently long for maturing the crops.

The total land area of Illinois is 35,840,000 acres. Of this, according to the Twelfth Census Report (1900), 32,794,728 acres are in farms, 27,699,219 acres of which, or 84.5 per cent, are improved land. There were then 264,151 farms in the state. The total value of the farm property was $2,004,316,897. The total value of the farm products was $345,649,611. The values of the leading products were: Domestic animals, $186,856,020; dairy products, $29,638,619; hay and forage, $25,568,619; cereals, $164,784,437.

The land grant institution is the University of Illinois, at Urbana, at which place is the College of Agriculture and also the Agricultural Experiment Station, founded in 1888. There are no regular substations, but experiment fields are located in different parts of the state and are leased long enough to demonstrate the problems being investigated in that particular locality. There is State Board of Agriculture, with headquarters at Springfield, consisting of a president, vice-president at large, secretary - treasurer, and a vice-president from each congressional district. It has charge of the crop reports and agricultural statistics of the state. The state fair is located permanently at Springfield and is in charge of the State Board of Agriculture. The Illinois Farmers' Institute govern

ing body consists of twenty-five men, one from each congressional district. The leading agricultural organizations are as follows: State Dairymen's Association, Live-stock Breeders' Association, which includes the following branches: Illinois HorseBreeders' Association, Illinois Swine-Breeders' Association, Illinois Cattle-Breeders' Association, Illinois Sheep-Breeders' Association and Illinois Cattle-Feeders' Association; Illinois Horticultural Society, the Northern Central and Southern Horticultural Associations, Illinois State Poultry Association, Illinois State Grange and Illinois Live-stock Commission.

IOWA. (By Charles F. Curtiss.) The state of Iowa is in about the center of what is termed the great Mississippi valley, lying between the Missouri and the Mississippi rivers and between 393 degrees and 433 degrees latitude north. Its surface and soil are very uniform and well suited to agricultural purposes. About ninety-seven per cent of the entire area of the table is considered tillable land, or might be made tillable by drainage. The soils, of the state come under four classes: Geest, or decomposed local rock; alluvium, or stream-made soils; loess, or wind-made soils; till, or soils of glacial origin. The state is generously supplied with small streams that are tributary to the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. The surface of the land is generally undulating, though some sections are nearly level. Adjacent to nearly all the larger streams is a strip of level alluvial soil, while in the southern, eastern and central parts of the state these streams are generally supplied with a small timber belt, though the natural timber of the state is rapidly disappearing. These bottom-lands are sometimes submerged, but as a rule they average as well in productiveness as other types of soil.

The natural and economical conditions surrounding the state are all such as to favor considerable diversity in its agriculture. The state is abundantly supplied with railroads. Its proximity to good markets and the richness and resources of its soils have developed diversified farming in all sections of the state. In the last census it ranked second to Illinois in total agricultural wealth. It is preeminently devoted to grain-raising, stock-feeding and dairying. Among the grains, corn ranks as the leading crop. When the soils began to show signs of depletion, dairying and stock-feeding were undertaken to maintain the fertility of the land. Dairying originated in the northeastern part of the state, but it has since extended to all sections, so there is no longer a dairying region of Iowa. The same is largely true of other phases of agriculture, though perhaps the central and western sections are more largely devoted to stock-feeding than other parts of the state. The live-stock interests have always been prominent, and no other state feeds so large a proportion of the grain products which it raises. Probably for this reason, and because of the large area devoted to grazing and stock-raising, the state has not yet reached the commercial fertilizer stage. Scarcely any commercial fertilizers have thus far found a market in Iowa, and it is believed that as long as intelligent methods of agriculture are fol

lowed no necessity for them will arise. There are indications that the farm lands will be more largely devoted to dairying in the future than in the past, though at one time, a few years since, the state held the foremost rank in the amount of creamery butter marketed.

The total land area of Iowa is 35,504,000 acres. Of this, according to the Twelfth Census Report

Fig. 67. Soil map of lowa.-A, Missouri loess; B, Wisconsin drift; C, moraine; D, Iowan drift: E, Mississippi loess; F, southern Iowa loess.

(1900), 34,574,337 acres are in farms, 29,897,552 acres of which, or 86.5 per cent, are improved land. There were then 228,622 farms in the state. The total value of the farm property was $1,834,345,546. The total value of the farm products was $365,411,528. The values of the leading products were: Domestic animals, $271,844,034; hay and forage, $30,042,246; dairy products, $27,516,870; cereals, $147,919,076.

The land grant college is separate from the State University and is located at Ames. The State University is at Iowa City. The federal Experiment Station is a part of the Agricultural College at Ames. There is a State Department of Agriculture with headquarters at Des Moines, in charge of the Secretary of Agriculture, who is elected by a Board of Directors, and they in turn elected by the delegates to the annual meeting. This Department has charge of the annual state fair, permanently located at Des Moines, and has supervisory relations with the state farmers' institute and the county agricultural fairs that receive aid from the state treasury. The State Board of Agriculture consists of eleven directors, one from each congressional district. The leading agricultural societies in this state are as follows: State Dairymen's Association, State Horticultural Society, Iowa Improved Stock-Breeders' Association, Corn-Breeders' Association, SwineBreeders' Association, State Poultry Association, Sheep-Breeders' and Wool-Growers' Association, Corn-Belt Meat-Producers' Association and Agricultural Union.

NEBRASKA. (By E. A. Burnett.) Nebraska is almost exclusively an agricultural state. The wealth depends on the fertile soil and mild climate, and the industrious people. Within the last ten years the value of agricultural products in the state has more than doubled, reaching for the year 1905 approximately $250,000,000, or $200 per capita.

Geographically situated within the great plains area, it is approximately 400 miles long and 200 miles wide, and has an area of 76,840 square miles. Broadly speaking, the state is a gently rolling prairie with some rough broken land running into rugged buttes as the western and northwestern boundary is approached, with a rough district of sand-hills in the north-central part. The elevation of the Missouri river is approximately 1,000 feet above sealevel. This increases gradually until it approaches 5,000 feet at the Wyoming line. Rainfall decreases with increased elevation, from thirty-one inches annually at the eastern border to fifteen inches at the western border.

Grain-farming and live-stock form the two principal lines of industry. Fruit-growing, sugar-beet culture, grass and forage crops are of secondary importance. In eastern Nebraska corn is a great money crop. Winter wheat is extensively grown throughout eastern, central and southwestern Nebraska, and durum wheat, barley, and emmer in other farming sections. Oats are a staple crop. Forage crops are extensively grown, including large acreages of alfalfa and other tame grasses, and native hay meadows.

One hundred and fifty thousand tons of sugarbeets were produced in 1905. Two beet-sugar factories are in operation and a third is to be built in the North Platte valley.

Nebraska ranks high in the production of livestock, large numbers being shipped or slaughtered each year. The dairy industry is developing rapidly. The annual revenue secured from its products is approximately $20,000,000, one-half of this being for butter sold. Approximately 1,000,000 sheep were fed for market in the year 1904. The state is fourth in the Union in the production of hogs, with approximately 3,000,000 head, January, 1905. Eastern Nebraska is the feed-lot of the range country lying farther west, a large proportion of the corn crop being fed on the farms to cattle, sheep and hogs, either home-grown or from the range country.

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Fig. 68. Chief agricultural regions of Nebraska,-A, grazing, potatoes, hay, durum wheat and alfalfa in the valleys; B, corn, oats, heavy acreage of alfalfa, barley, winter wheat, cattle- and swine-feeding; C, corn, oats, wild hay, small acreage of alfalfa, cattle-feeding; D, fruit, corn, winter wheat, oats, fair acreage of alfalfa, cattle- and swinefeeding.

West of the 100th meridian the land is largely devoted to range pasture, supporting many thousand cattle and horses, much of this land being public domain. Since the Kinkaid law became operative in 1904, granting 640-acre homesteads, many thousand acres of this area have been settled by homesteaders.

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