VERMONT AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 43 



of the wheat crop has increased from $232,000,000 to S393,- 

 000,000. 



In the production of wheat this country leads all other 

 countries. A comparison for 1898 shows that we produced 

 in the United States 675,000,000 bushels, while in France 

 there were produced 372,000,000 and in Russia 405,1)00,000. 

 In the whole of Asia there were but 421,000,000 bushels 

 grown. This country is also foremost in the production of 

 cotton, which has had a remarkable growth in dimension, 

 reaching in 1897 nearly 11,000,000 bales, valued at about 

 $320,000,000. The annual hay crop is now worth but $400,- 

 000,000; the potato crop nearly $100,000,000 while the crop of 

 oats is worth from $150,000,000, to $200,000,000, all showing a 

 decided increase. 



The introduction of improved farm machinery has contrib- 

 uted greatly to the ability and facility of farmers in planting 

 and harvesting their crops and has reduced the cost of pro- 

 duction in a great degree. 



SOILS. 



There has been a marked general improvement in the 

 management of soils. They are intelligently cultivated and 

 in the southern states methods for preventing erosions and 

 washing of lands has been adopted, while in New York, 

 Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Missouri 

 there has been an increased amount of land underdrained. 

 Many of the light sand}' truck soils of the American Coast 

 States are being underdrained in order to dry the, lands more 

 quickly in the spring and hasten the maturity of the plant 

 upon which the value of the crop depends. 



In Massachusetts, New Jersey, Wisconsin and Florida 

 oartcularly a beginning has been made in some irrigation 

 plants to control the soil moisture conditions in order to pre- 

 vent the disastrous effect of drouth and so act as an insur- 

 ance against loss in the destructive summer droughts that are 

 likely to occur in what has always been regarded as the hu- 

 mid regions. In addition to this the practice prevails, in 

 Florida and some other states in the cultivation of pineapples, 

 citrons fruits and tobacco, of shading the land with lath 

 screens, giving half shade, or with canvass to protect the land 

 from undue evaporation, to protect the plants and make the 

 condition of the soil and air more uniform than any other 

 system of cultivation has ever attained. 



The most important advance being made now is in the 

 recognition of the influence of the character of the soil upon 

 the distribution and development of the crops. The domains 

 of geology, chemistry, physics and meterology are being in- 



