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California, a number of which produce some of the most valuable 

 varieties of lumber in the country. Although considerably over 

 one half of the species are hardwood or broad-leaved trees, yet, 

 with the exception of the exotic eucalyptus, there is not a single 

 species of hardwood here ranking in commercial importance with 

 the leading eastern hardwoods. Climatic conditions in many 

 parts of California are favorable for the growth of a number of 

 the valuable hardwoods, and the absence of these trees is due 

 mostly to unfavorable factors of seed distribution." 



Professor Milton Whitney, chief of the soils bureau of the De- 

 partment of Agriculture, has recently issued a bulletin showing 

 that the long-cultivated soils of the leading nations are not only 

 producing greater crops than at any earlier period, but are pro- 

 ducing much more than the comparatively new soils of the United 

 States. The average wheat yields (1897— 1906) were 32 bushels 

 an acre in Great Britain, 28 in Germany, 20 in France, and barely 

 14 in the United States. In the last twenty-five years the average 

 yields of wheat in Germany have increased from 18 to 30 bushels 

 an acre, of rye from 15 to 25 bushels, and of oats from 28 to 55 

 bushels. Similar statistics for other countries sustain the same 

 view, and a study of American crop statistics for the last forty 

 years shows that there is no general decrease in yields. These 

 statistics also show that the older states whose soils have been 

 longest in use are producing the largest yields. Even the soils 

 of New England have materially increased in yields of corn and 

 wheat in forty years ; but what is more remarkable, they are pro- 

 ducing considerably heavier yields than the soils of the Missis- 

 sippi Valley states (e. g., wheat 18 bushels an acre against 13 

 bushels for the forty-year average). 



Another recent article by James J. Hill in the World's Work 

 makes an appeal for the conservation of the soil fertility, giving 

 as an instance of this need the striking contrast between the soils 

 of France and Spain. Both countries have been cultivated for a 

 very long time. One of them is exceedingly fertile and is rich 

 and prosperous. The other is chiefly sterile and is poor and 

 unprosperous. While it is quite true that New England produces 

 far more wheat by the acre than any western state, it is also true 



