12 THE EXHAUSTION OF THE ARABLE LANDS. 



aggregating 19,069,238 acres. During the second peroid — five years — population increased 

 14.2 per cent, and the area in cultivation 42 per cent., the average annual additions to th» 

 cultivated area being no less shan 9, .525, 710 acres, and aggregating 47,628.548 acres. The 

 third period shows population increasing a trifle more than 12 per cent., cultivated acres 

 21.2 per cent., and an average annual addition to the area in staple crops of 6,841,661 acres; 

 the aggregate reaching 34,208,307, which was still out of proportion to the increase in 

 population. During the five years ending in 1889, the rate at which population increased 

 was somewhat less than in the preceding periods, but the rate of increase in cultivated 

 acres was reduced to 8.1 per cent., being but 1.6 per cent, per annum; the average annual 

 increment of the cultivated area shringiug to 3,150,276 acres — little more than half the 

 normal requirements— and clearly showing the rapid diminution of the arable lands. 



Although the population was 12.200,000 greater in 1889 than ten years earlier, and 

 the desire for farms just as keen as ever, yet in the last five years, with fully a fourth 

 more people desirous of becoming owners of farms, the number of acres added to the cul- 

 tivated area was but one-third as great as during the five years ending in 1879; being in 

 the latter period 15,750,000 acres, as against 47,628,000 acres in the earlier one; whereas, 

 had the increase in acreage been in the same ratio to population as in the earlier period, 

 such additions would have reached a total of 60,000,000 acres. The land hunger being 

 quite as sharp now as in the eighth decade, it is evident that there is a lack of the means 

 of gratifying it. 



The foregoing table and the partial analysis following enable us to see the progress 

 of agricultural development and the occupation and gradual diminution of the arable 

 areas in the several districts. They help to a clearer appreciation of the effects of such 

 rapid development upon the agricultural and other Interests and indicate plainly that 

 the existing depression is, in part, due to an increase in cultivated acres out of all propor- 

 tion to the synchronous increase in population, at the same time suggesting the inquiryi 

 Wliere can be found the arable lands to satisfy the land-hungry home-seekers now ready 

 to settle, in countless swarms, upon any fraction of an Indian reservation that is at al* 

 likely to be thrown open to settlement? 



The unoccupied area in the North Atlantic group covers some 7,500,000 acres. It 

 lies mostly in the Aroostook and Adirondack regions, and is almost wholly unfit for cul- 

 tivation being either rough and mountainous, swampy, or heavily timbered, with soils 

 of very low fertilit3', of which but a small fraction can be brought under cultivation. In 

 Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota are tracts aggregating some 10 000,000 acres which 

 are valuable only for the forest growths above and the minerals below the surface. These 

 lauds will add but little to the cultivated acreage. 



Such portions of Texas, Kansas. Nebraska and the Dakotas as lie west of the 100th 

 meridian have generally been included among the arable areas, and it has been esteemed 

 an act of treason for a citizen of any one of those States to maintain that only such parts 

 of this vast tract as are susceptible of irrigation can rightfully be so designated. This 

 Immense plains area, covering as well large parts of New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming 

 and Montana, is at best but a pastoral region, in which repeated attempts have been made 

 to reduce the lands to cultivation. Successive armies of settlers have invaded these 

 desiccated plains, but after expending their means and suffering deplorable hardsliips, 

 have found it necessary to abandon land and improvements. This is the area from which 

 arises that perennial cry for aid, as it is also the land from which a refluent wave of pop- 

 ulation moves eastward with as much regularity as the return of Autumn. 



Much of the soil being fairly fertile, these plains offer no obstacles to settlement and 

 cultivation, except such as are found in the climate; that presents the same peculiarities 

 of aridity, extreme variations in temperature and excessive evaporation found in the 

 elevated regions of Central Asia. It is true that near the eastern borders of this tract fine 

 crops are occasionally grown, but only in years when the rainfall is exceptionally great 

 and the dreaded simoom fails to wither vegetation. Such exceptional seasons, however, 

 are but "a snare and a delusion," inducing men to waste their energies and means in 

 abortive attempts to cultivate these arid soils. Occasionally thearid features of theclimat© 



