INTRODUCTION 



Growing Crops Our Greatest Business 



Compared with Europe and Asia the United 

 States is a young nation and our agricultural oper- 

 ations still in their infancy. While development 

 has been rapid and on a broad scale, it has gone 

 on roughly without regard to permanency; crops 

 have been raised without thought as to the effect 

 upon the soil; great quantities of produce have 

 been secured regardless of efficiency or quality and 

 old methods have been followed without interest in 

 any change that might mean a higher state of land 

 culture, a greater acre yield of field, orchard and 

 garden crops, or a more economical production of 

 animal products. 



American agriculture has been of a shifting 

 nature. The early settlers introduced many de- 

 sirable European plants to be used in addition to 

 those native here; they brought live stock from 

 across the water and these were raised on every 

 individual farm. As a result, on every farm the 

 entire needs of the home were raised or made in 

 the household. The farmer not only raised the 

 raw materials but manufactured everything that 

 was needed for his own use. In time this 

 concentrated effort gave way to diversification ; 

 and a division of labor resulted. The canal came, 

 soon to be followed by the railroad and then later 

 by every kind of transportation power. Agricul- 

 tural industries became segregated or separated or 

 fixed as the nature of the soil or climate or loca- 

 tion demanded. 



