READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



climatic as by human influences, and the force of social con- 

 siderations. So far as anything disclosed by our analysis is 

 concerned, therefore, with the single exception of the private 

 ownership of monopolies, there is no evidence that urban wealth 

 has been accumulated at the expense of the farmer. 



III. THE RELATION OF AGRICULTURE TO 

 TRANSPORTATION 



Influence of means of transportation upon the migration and 

 the geographical concentration of agricultural production, \\ithin 

 the memory of many now living, the Genesee valley led the 

 whole country in the production of wheat. At the present time, 

 not only has the center of wheat production changed from New 

 York to Minnesota and Dakota, but the milling industry has 

 migrated from Rochester to Minneapolis. 



Of the total wheat crop of 1839, 61.52 per cent was produced 

 in four states, containing only 5.84 per cent of the entire surface 

 of the country ; fifty years later those states produced only 1 5 .66 

 per cent of the total, and four others, containing 1 1 .o i per cent of 

 the total land surface, produced 35.85 per cent of the total crop. 

 Of the total production of oats in 1839, 56.2 per cent was pro- 

 duced in four states containing 5.84 per cent of the entire land 

 surface of the country. In 1889, 48.82 per cent was grown -in 

 four other states, containing 8.25 per cent of the total land surface. 



The explanation of this wandering of agricultural enterprise 

 and localization in new fields of production is to be found in the 

 American railway system. The chart on the opposite page ex- 

 hibits the relationship between the extension of railway mileage 

 west of the Mississippi and the increase in the area devoted to 

 the production of corn and wheat. Capacity, cheapness, speed, 

 and independence of the natural features of the earth's surface 

 have been the elements that have contributed to the efficiency of 

 the American railway and have rendered the development of 

 agricultural industry so dependent upon it. According to an 

 English writer, J. Stephen Jeans, the American is superior to 

 the English railway system in all these respects. In no particular, 



