A Graphic Swnrimry of American Agnculture. 9 



fornia- Arizona Desert, where irrigated cotton farming increases the 

 proj^ortion to 33 per cent. In the East, on the other hand, over 30 

 per cent of the farms in the Corn and Winter Wheat Region are op- 

 erated by tenants; in the Corn Belt over 40 per cent; and in the 

 Cotton Belt over 60 per cent, owing in part to the plantation sys- 

 tem and the large negro population. The Subtropical Coast and the 

 Hay and Pasture regions, however, have only 27 per cent and 16 per 

 cent, respectively, of the farms rented to tenants. (Compare Fig. 2 

 with Figs. 112 to 117.) 



The geographic distribution of the rural and urban population is 

 particularly interesting. The rural population is densest in the Cot- 

 ton Belt, where cotton cultivation and picking require large amounts 

 of hand labor and the acreage per laborer is small; also in the 

 eastern portion of the Corn and Winter Wlieat Eegion, where the 

 rolling to hilly lands and lack of capital discourage extensive use of 

 machinery. The rural population is much thinner in the Corn 

 Belt and the Spring Wheat Eegion, and is thinnest in the West, except 

 in the irrigated districts and the Pacific coast valleys. Urban popu 

 lation, on the other hand, is concentrated largely in the Hay and 

 Pasture Eegion of the Xortheastern and Lake States, where large 

 manufacturing and commercial cities provide a vast market for the 

 nation's agricultural products. (Compare Fig. 2 with Figs. 118 

 to 120.) 



Information concerning " farm facilities," including tractors, auto- 

 mobiles, water piped into the house, and telephones, was collected 

 by the census in 1920 for the first time. Tractors are found mostly 

 in the Corn Belt, and the Spring Wheat, Great Plains, and South 

 Pacific Eegions. Over one-third of the automobiles are in the Corn 

 Belt, where one-half to three-quarters of the farms have such ve- 

 hicles. Water has been piped into the houses mostly in the Hay and 

 Pasture Region, especially in New England, and in the South Pacific 

 Region. Telephones are more widely distributed than any other 

 of the farm facilities ; nevertheless, the map shows a noteworthy con- 

 centration in the Corn Belt and the Hay and Pasture Eegions. 

 These " farm facilities " are criteria of rural progress and prosperity, 

 and as such their geographic distribution is deserving of considera- 

 tion. (Compare Fig. 2 with Figs. 121 to 124.) 



