PRODUCTION AND MOVEMENT 307 



A feature of the wheat industry in the United States that 

 merits special mention is the increased production of durum 

 wheats. These wheats are now widely grown in the semi-arid 

 regions where the annual rainfall does not exceed 10 or 12 

 inches. In the early years they were a product very difficult 

 of profitable sale, but they are now assuming a strong com- 

 mercial position. The nature of the grain was not generally 

 understood by American millers until it had been on the mar- 

 ket for several years. In Russia it is blended with about 25 

 per cent of red wheat, and the same practice has been followed 

 with some success in the United States. Many^ mills are now 

 grinding the grain. A large portion of the durum wheat grown 

 in the United States is exported, chiefly to Marseilles and 

 other ports of the Mediterranean sea. About 10,000,000 bushels 

 were exported during the year ending June 30, 1906. About 

 2,000,000 bushels were produced in 1902, 6,000,000 in 1903, 

 20,000,000 in 1905, and 50,000,000 bushels in 1906. 



Russian Wheat Production. Viewed solely from the point 

 of view of its natural resources and economic aspects, Russia 

 is the United States of Europe. It has immense undeveloped 

 areas that would form ideal wheat lands, lands very similar to 

 those which constitute the wheat belt of the United States. 

 European Russia may be divided into two regions distinct as 

 to the nature of their soil by a line running from Bessarabia 

 in the southwest to Ufa in the northeast. In the southeast is 

 the chernozium (black soil) region, and in the northwest the 

 non-chernozium region. Clay, sand and rocky soils are all found 

 in the non-black soil region, which lacks fertility and is chiefly 

 devoted to the production of rye. The black soil zone is an 

 arable plain, vast in extent, very fertile in soil, arising through 

 centuries from the decomposition of accumulated Steppe 

 grasses and sheltered by outlying forests. This plain stretches 

 across the empire to the Ural Mountains, extending completely 

 over 15 provinces and partially over 12, and even reappearing 

 in Siberia. It is one of the largest fertile sections of land on 

 the globe. In European Russia, the 18 provinces which lie 

 chiefly in the black soil region produce two-thirds of the wheat 

 and only one-third of the rye. Of the 328,000,000 acres of 

 arable land, 59 per cent, or 193,000,000 acres, is located in the 

 black soil region. Of the 197,000,000 acres of cereal crops, 72 



