40 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



in the region where the costs are greatest. When, however, as 

 a result of a new discovery or the extension of means of trans- 

 portation a new and fertile wheat region enters into competition 

 with the old regions, it may happen that the supply of wheat 

 will increase more rapidly than the population, and to induce 

 the people to consume more wheat per capita the price must 

 be lowered. As a result of the fall of wheat prices some of the 

 old wheat regions find their costs greater than the prices they 

 can get, and will find it necessary to change to some other crop. 

 This condition was brought about in the wheat industry when 

 the fertile wheat regions of Kansas, Minnesota, and the Dakotas 

 were made accessible and poured their abundant supplies of 

 grain upon the markets of Europe. The farmers of England 

 found wheat growing a losing enterprise. Had they understood 

 the cause of the fall in wheat prices they would have known that 

 the one thing to do was to drop wheat growing and take up some 

 other line where foreign competition was not so keen. After 

 a long time this came about, the wheat lands were converted 

 into meadows and pastures, and the dairy industry paid well 

 for the efforts expended. Unfortunately many farmers held 

 to wheat production long after it ceased to yield a profit. In 

 some cases this resulted in bankruptcy which alertness to the 

 price situation might have avoided. 



We are not without illustrations of this principle in this 

 country. The falling wheat price due to the rapid growth of 

 the wheat industry in the Northwest was an important factor 

 in driving Wisconsin farmers from a system of grain farming 

 with wheat as the money crop into the live stock industry 

 with dairy products as the chief sources of income. 



The westward movement of the wheat industry in the North 

 was paralleled by the westward expansion of cotton production 

 in the South. From the old centers in Georgia and the Caro- 

 linas, the cotton industry extended into the fertile " Black 

 Prairie of Alabama," sprang up in the rich alluvial of the Mis- 

 sissippi and confluent rivers, and in the Black Prairie of Texas. 

 The result was a rapid increase in the quantity of cotton pro- 

 duced. The increased supply was produced at a lower cost 



