THE AMERICAN CROPS, 165 



fessor Voelcker analysed for me four samples 

 of prairie soils from Illinois, which proved richer 

 in nitrogen than any of which he could find 

 record. It is thus not merely the vast extent 

 of corn land, but its highly productive quality, 

 that European agriculture must in future com- 

 pete with. 



The American wheat crop of 1878 was 

 52,000,000 quarters four times that of a full 

 crop in the United Kingdom. That of 1879 

 was still greater, and the extent sown in the 

 present year is reported at 13 per cent, increase ; 

 and the coming crop on the Pacific slope pro- 

 mises to be the largest ever grown. Their 

 production of Indian corn is more than three 

 times greater than that of wheat, the crop of 

 1878 having yielded 173,000,000 quarters, capable, 

 if used solely for that purpose, of feeding four 

 times the population of the United States. It 

 chiefly contributes to the food of the 500,000 

 tons of pork packed and cured yearly, of which 

 considerably more than one-half comes to this 



country. 



The competition to which not only British 



