DRY LANDS AND FORESTS 125 



the four states of Georgia, Alabama, Mis- 

 sissippi and Texas, over seventy per cent, of 

 the farming produced cotton not food, but 

 clothing. 



Examining the production of food in these 

 grand geographical divisions in another way, 

 let us take the cereals, which occupy forty- 

 eight per cent, of all plowed land in the United 

 States. The acreage in cereals increased only 

 3.5 per cent, in ten years and the per capita 

 production fell from 58.4 bushels to 49.1 

 bushels. Is there any reason for wonder, with 

 a population increasing 21 per cent., that the 

 cereal crop of 1909 was worth 79.8 per cent, 

 more in dollars and cents than the same crop 

 in 1899? Such an increase in money returns 

 offered every inducement to the farmer to in- 

 crease production. 



What share of production does the Middle 

 West, the "rain-belt," claim to-day? Of the 

 1909 crop the Middle West produced 65.8 per 

 cent. practically two-thirds. The East fur- 

 nished 4.1; the South, 25.3, and the Far 

 West, 6.2. 



The term "rain-belt" and the reservoir of 

 food surplus then become practically synon- 

 ymous. The problem of rain is not vital east 



