11 Nov., 1918] American Agriculture. 661 



winter time, and the temperature ranged from 10 to 30 degrees below 

 freezing point. For four months in the year they have to house their 

 stock, but this had compelled them to feed their stock, and they had 

 consequently developed a system of feeding stock which had proved 

 highly profitable. The most prosperous rural eommunities in the States 

 were those which devoted the largest share of attention to live-stock 

 farming. America maintained 45,000,000 sheep, 60,000,000 cattle, and 

 68,000,000 pigs on the same area as Australia. Unkind nature had com- 

 pelled them to conserve fodder for winter feeding, and an American 

 farmer always kept on hand one or one and a half years' supply. 



Transportation. 



With respect to transportation, facilities in the United States were 

 very strongly developed. A place like Horsham would have three or 

 four railways catering for its traffic, and the efficiency of the railway 

 systems was high; but railways could not do everything; therefore the 

 road system was as important as the railway system. The country 

 system of road-making had proved a failure, because money borrowed 

 to build roads was wasted unless money were provided for their main- 

 tenance. The Federal Government of America has appropriated 

 85,000,000 dollars, to be supplemented by an equal amount by the 

 States, to be expended over a period of five years. The State and 

 Federal Governments co-operate in the building of the roads, and the 

 State Government has to create a State highway commission, under 

 whose control the main roads of the State are centred, in order to 

 secure the benefit of Federal appropriation. Another feature of tbieir 

 transportation is bulk handling. East of the Rocky Mountains wheat 

 is handled in bulk, west of the ranges in bags similar to the Australian 

 method. The great advantages of bulk handling were saving of bags, 

 saving in labour, saving in time, and it permits proper grading and 

 cleaning of the grain and brings the careful farmer a substantial pre- 

 mium. Elevators were built at an approximate cost of 2s. a bushel for 

 terminal elevators and Is. a bushel for country elevators; while storage 

 charges were very reasonable. Generally speaking, the elevators were 

 filled three or four times during the year. An interesting feature was 

 the size of the farmsteads. In the eastern States they averaged 80 

 acres, in the middle west 160 acres, and in the west 240 to 320 acres, 

 averaging smaller holding than in Victoria. The State of Iowa, two- 

 thirds of the size of Victoria, grew 324,000,000 bushels of maize, and 

 maintained last year 10,000,000 pigs and 3,000,000 dairy cows; while 

 the diversification of their agriculture was marked. 



Diversified Agriculture. 



Here in Australia we follow a one-crop system. "Wheat is our main 

 crop, and if anything goes wrong with our wheat production the financial 

 system of the country is interfered with; but in America wheat, oats, 

 barley, and sugar are all staple crops, and it is not a one-crop country. 

 They grow 3,0"00,000,000 bushels of maize and 1,000,000,000 bushels of 

 oats, 80 per cent, of which is fed to stock and 800,000,000 bushels of 

 wheat, and have 2,000,000 acres in flax. We in Australia import annually 

 £500,000 worth of flax products, all of which can be raised in Victoria. 

 Sugar to the amount of 800,000 tons is made from beet, millions of acres 

 are laid down in lucerne, and millions of tons of lucerne hay are made. 



