168 THE FARMER OF TO-MORROW 



buckwheat. Turning to the Netherlands, a 

 land of small holdings, and therefore intensive 

 culture, tobacco returned $213 gross, and grain 

 only $21. 



The surplus production of small grains 

 presents a problem for the distant future, 

 especially when we remember that small grains 

 provide three-fifths of our diet. Extensive 

 culture of this most important item of diet 

 must always mark the frontiers ; and before us 

 to-day we have the undeveloped Black Earth 

 Belt of Russia, the western plains of Canada 

 and the United States, Brazil, Argentine. 

 Australia, and the unexplored regions in the 

 interior of Africa. 



If we turn again to America to seek in what 

 sections the highest type of farming has been 

 developed, as regards specialization of soils, 

 we should naturally decide it was to be found 

 in the East where the land had been under 

 cultivation longest. And this is what we ac- 

 tually do find, in the face of the popular belief 

 that the western prairies are the most fertile 

 intrinsically. 



It is the western prairies that produce the 

 surplus through the sheer extent of their 



