160 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the fact that the United States census investigation for which a mil- 

 lion dollars was appropriated, for the purpose of recording farm mort- 

 gages in 1890, disclosed the fact that in the ten great grain-growing 

 States of the middle West two thirds of the farms were then free of 

 any mortgage of any kind, and were well stocked ; the incumbrance on 

 the remaining third being less than forty per cent of the computed 

 value of the mortgaged farms. Since that date several State investi- 

 gations have been made, leading to the conclusion that not exceeding 

 twenty per cent of the farms in these States are now under any in- 

 cumbrance of any kind. In the more prosperous parts of Minnesota 

 and other wheat sections since the substitution of intelligent and 

 varied agriculture for the single wheat crop, foreclosures have almost 

 ceased, such as do occur being attributed to special causes ; while such 

 is the abundance of capital accumulated in this section that the rates 

 of interest on safe investments, which but a few years since were near- 

 ly double those prevailing in the seaboard commercial cities, are now 

 about even. When certain causes lately produced a short stringency 

 in the money markets of the East, remittances were made from these 

 Western cities for investment in Eastern commercial paper. 



In regard to wheat production at a fixed price in London, the 

 Commissioner of Agriculture and Labor of North Dakota remarks: 

 " Wheat at one dollar per bushel in London would net the North 

 Dakota farmer on the average about seventy-five cents per bushel on 

 the railroad track. At that price as a standard, every farmer in the 

 State would utilize all the land he has, and buy up more of the land 

 now lying idle and in the hands of speculators. It would increase 

 immigration so that nearly all the vacant Government land would be 

 taken up. We also have over one million acres of school and State 

 land, of which at least eighty per cent is suitable for raising wheat. 

 Such a price would give North Dakota a boom that never had its 

 equal." 



A few words may be given to the report from Texas. The Sec- 

 retary of the Board of Agriculture states that " the area of arable 

 land of fair quality, including pasture that might be put under the 

 plow in this State, is two hundred thousand square miles; about one 

 hundred thousand square miles suitable for wheat and other grains 

 lying north of parallel 31°; about one hundred thousand square 

 miles lying south of that line adapted to cotton, sugar, fruits, and 

 vegetables of all kinds." 



An unexpected reply comes from Idaho, as yet insignificant in 

 wheat production, stating that the potential of that State under the 

 conditions named might reach 400,000,000 bushels. 



Again, from Arkansas, to which State we have looked more for 

 excellent cotton than for grain, " there are fifteen million acres of 



