484 Report of Farmers' Institutes 



amount of free land that was offered to settlers^ produced pro- 

 found economic changes in all of our eastern sections. Grain 

 farming was no longer found profitable and gradually moved 

 westward. 



Those of us who lived in the Middle West about this period 

 can well recall the almost continuous stream of emigrants passing 

 from east to west. About 1870 to 1875 this great mass of migrants 

 was coming largely from parts of JSTew York State and even fur- 

 ther east, and was en route to the cheaper lands of Kansas and 

 Nebraska. 



A little later there were some very far-reaching discoveries in 

 the matter of reducing wheat to flour. These were applied in 

 northwestern cities, such as Minneapolis and St. Paul, and led to 

 the development of a new wheat-producing area in all that section 

 and in parts further west. These areas also drew people from the 

 East, resulting in further very marked changes in economic con- 

 ditions, and the cheapening of lands. 



There was at the same time a growing European demand for 

 beef. The range lands of the West were then at their best and 

 furnished opportunities for the production of immense numbers of 

 animals, which could be fattened very cheaply on the grain pro- 

 duced in the Mississippi Valley states. The cheapening of trans- 

 portation and better facilities for bringing the cattle to eastern 

 seaports had the eftect of shifting the production of cattle more 

 and more from the East to the West. The East could not compete 

 in any of these matters, and, further, it could not compete with 

 gTain and hay growing as practiced in the West ; consequently, it 

 gradually lost the standing that it had previously held in the pro- 

 duction of live stock. 



These changes proceeded very rapidly during the period from 

 1880 to 1890. Early in this period the refrigerator car was 

 invented, which brought about another radical change in agri- 

 cultural work in the Ea'st. Up to this time the East had been hav- 

 ing more or less of a monopoly in dairy work, especially in the 

 production of butter and cheese. With improved shipping facili- 

 ties, however, and with the introduction of the refrigerator car, 

 the Middle West immediately became a competitor in this work. 

 With cheap grain and other feeds, and with cheapening transpor- 



